Slaughterhouse II (Side Story): Kinetica Rising
by enderdez45
Summary: READ SLAUGHTERHOUSE: NEW MISSION FIRST! Eight years before the events of My Hero Academia, a young hero named Toschi Hatsume entered U.A. Academy. Throughout his education, he learned that sometimes, being a hero isn't as great as everyone thinks it is. How will his experiences affect his view on society? Rated M for language and violence. Part of the Slaughterhouse series.
1. Prologue: The Funeral

**If you haven't read Slaughterhouse: New Mission, read that first. This is a side story to that, and will not make any sense if you have not read it. With that being said, enjoy!**

**Slaughterhouse: Kinetica Rising**

_Enderdez45_

Prologue: The Funeral

Toschi Hatsume's funeral was a sad reunion between Melissa Shield, Toschi's girlfriend, and the U.A. students involved in the I-Island Incident. A few weeks earlier, Toschi had suffered severe injuries in a fight; he had joined forces with the infamous vigilante Otowaru Chiraka, The Slaughterhouse. In his final battle, the Spanish villain Carbonado attacked Class 1-A; he sacrificed his life to save theirs. He died a few weeks later, in the same hospital where Chiraka had been held after he suffered his own injuries from the fight. At the funeral, Midoriya walked to the casket, staring down at the hero's body. Despite the severe burns Toschi suffered, his body had been completely repaired for the funeral, and the arm he had lost had been replaced with a prosthetic.

Midoriya blinked back a tear as he remembered the fight. Carbonado had thrown a red-hot ball of molten graphite at the students, and as it was about to hit them, it froze in the air. Toschi's Quirk enabled him to freeze any movable object in place, and then when he released it, any kinetic energy applied to it while it was frozen was instantly released, sending the object flying at whatever trajectory it was hit towards. Toschi had sent the orb back at Carbonado, but the force of the explosion as it ricocheted blew his arm off and severely burned almost all of his body. Despite their best efforts, doctors were unable to revive him from his coma, and he passed away.

Mei was uncharacteristically solemn throughout the funeral. She clung to Melissa, trying to hold back her tears as Toschi's friends spoke about his life and adventures. He had no immediate family; his parents had been killed several years prior in a traffic accident. Mei's parents were there, her mother distraught at losing her nephew so soon after her brother and sister-in-law. As Toschi's friends spoke and laughed about his time at U.A. years ago, Midoriya realized something: _I never got to ask him about his time at U.A._

Toschi graduated U.A. from the Support Course five years before Midoriya got accepted. Strangely, he had been accepted into the Hero Course, but transferred out after his first year. Midoriya wanted to ask some of Toschi's friends about it, but he felt it would be rude to ask, so he forgot it. At the funeral, Midoriya saw Melissa give something to Mei, but he didn't want to press the matter. Afterwards, Melissa announced to the students that she was going to stay in Japan with Mei's family for a few weeks before returning to I-Island to continue her work.

A few days after the funeral, Midoriya entered the workshop to check on Mei. She sat with her back to him, tinkering with something he couldn't see. Occasionally, she would reach over to a laptop and type something in, and an error message would pop up. She groaned and leaned back, spinning lazily in her chair. She saw Midoriya and perked up. "Hey Midoriya," she said as he walked over to her, "what's up?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing," he said, and Mei sighed.

"It's tough; I've looked up to him my whole life. He was the reason I got so interested in building support items in the first place, and now that he's gone, I just…" she trailed off, and Midoriya placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You feel lost, right?" he asked, and she nodded, eyes closed. "I've felt that before. Somebody who I looked up to, someone I admired, someone I wanted to be, they left. They're gone now, but you know what? I choose to work hard so that I can live up to what that person expected of me; I work so that I can become stronger, so that next time, people won't have to die. I'm sure Toschi wanted you to be an even better inventor than he was, and he would hate it if you gave up on that dream." Mei sighed and rested her head on Midoriya's chest, not noticing him stiffening up.

"I know, but it just feels so different now. Like, when something doesn't go right, normally I just keep working until it's perfect. But now, I can barely find the effort to even try to fix things." She looked up at him, and he saw a tear in her eye. "If I can't do what I do best, then what am I? Am I someone Toschi would have been proud of? I can't do all the things he did, he was a hero! A hero who saved countless lives, a hero who saved our lives, a hero who gave his own life to help others! I can't be that!" She threw her arms around Midoriya's shoulders, crying into his chest. He froze, then slowly brought his hands up to her back, holding her as she sobbed. She cried for a few minutes, then her tears slowly stopped coming. She let go of him and sat back, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's okay," Midoriya interrupted, "I get like that sometimes too." She laughed, imagining Midoriya in her place. "So, what are you working on now?" Midoriya asked, snapping her out of it.

"Oh, it's just something Melissa gave me," she said, turning around. "She was working on a prototype with Toschi, and she wants me to finish it." She spun back around, holding a very familiar device. Midoriya's eyes went wide as he saw the Full Gauntlet sitting in her hands. It looked about the same as it did back when he fought Wolfram, but it was longer, like it would cover his whole arm. He saw another spot of red on her desk, and he approached the other Full Gauntlet, amazed. "Melissa said you would recognize them," Mei said. "They're designed to be three times lighter and eight times stronger than before. They cover your whole arm now, so it provides even more support and protection. I redesigned it slightly so that it can integrate into your suit, and I made one for your left hand as well." She frowned, rubbing her chin. "Although, since you primarily use your legs now, I guess I could work on Full Gauntlets for your legs too. Oh, check this out!" She picked up a small circuit board on the desk and pressed a button on it. The two gauntlets shrank down, collapsing into bracelets. "You can deploy all of them at an instant! This would go on your wrist, but I'm trying to work out how to integrate this button into your costume. If I get it working with the leg Gauntlets, I think it could raise your strength so much that All Might would look like you." She snickered, and Midoriya looked at her, amazed.

"Mei, this is amazing!" he exclaimed, a big smile on his face. "But I thought the Full Gauntlet was destroyed…"

"Oh, it was. Melissa told me about how strong you were." Her eyes narrowed, and a smug grin came over her face. "She said it could take the full strength of All Might three times. You used it at full strength twice and it broke." He froze, face white. "You got some serious power in that body of yours Midoriya. When you become the number one hero, make sure you're using my babies." She winked and turned around, resuming her work. Midoriya shakily nodded and left, stumbling at the doorway as Mei laughed. Mei sighed as the door closed, glancing over at her laptop screensaver.

Her eyes stared back at her, her young arms waving at the camera. She was in elementary school at the time, and she was sitting on Toschi's shoulders, a big smile on her face. He was in graduation robes and was laughing at something off camera. Mei smiled as she remembered that day; in fact, that day was the first time she had managed to put something back together after taking it apart. Toschi had been so happy to get his phone back in one piece. She laughed at the memory and leaned over to grab a screwdriver, but lost her balance and fell to the floor. As she groaned and tried to stand up, a piece of writing caught her eye. On the bottom of the desk, a sentence stared back at her: _Watch out villains, Kinetica is here!_The message was dated, and Mei realized he had written it in his third year. She sat back on her chair and wondered what his school experience must have been like.


	2. Chapter 1: Entrance

Chapter 1: Entrance

_Eight years ago…_

A crowd of people mulled around outside U.A's gate, waiting for them to open for the entrance exam. A young teen with messy pink hair and striking yellow eyes stood off to the side, snickering at some of the conversations he overheard. A hand clapped on his shoulder.

"Hatsume! What are you doing here?" Toschi Hatsume turned around and grinned as he saw his neighbor, Ketaki Omakase. He was a relatively tall teen with black, red-striped hair and, creepily, pitch black eyes. An interesting thing people instantly noticed about Omakase was his lack of palms; instead of the lower four bones in his fingers fusing to form a palm, they extended all the way to his wrist, like he had five thumbs.

"Omakase!" he exclaimed, hugging his friend. "You're trying out too?"

"Yeah! I heard Netsuke got recommended here as well!" Toschi grinned, and Omakase looked out at the group of people. "Wow, this year they got a lot of applicants, huh?"

"Of course!" Toschi glanced at some of the other kids, smirking. "I heard they got a new teacher this year; you know the R-Rated Hero: Midnight?" he laughed at Omakase's dumbfounded expression. "She's teaching Modern Hero Art History, I think. Seriously, who decided she was appropriate for a bunch of high-school boys?"

"An absolute hero," Omakase said, and the two both cracked up laughing. They heard a boom, and the gates opened up. They filed into a large auditorium and sat down in the desks. In front of them was a large stage with a pedestal on it. The lights dimmed, and the pro hero Cementoss stepped out.

"Greetings, applicants to U.A! I am Cementoss, the Modern Literature teacher here at this school. I will be giving you an overview of the entrance exam, and then you shall take the written exam and the practical exam. At the mention of a practical exam, he heard a lot of worried whispering. "Fear not, the practical exam has been rewritten this year. So, starting this year, you will not be fighting the other applicants to gain admission." He chuckled as a collective sigh rose in the crowd. "Before I get into any of that, you will take the written exam. It will consist of a test that will take you approximately two hours to complete." Groans from the audience. "We shall begin in ten minutes. Please take this time to prepare your desks for the exam."

* * *

_Two hours later…_

"And time." Dozens of pencils clattered to the desktops, and a collective sigh of relief filled the auditorium. Omakase looked over to Hatsume and was shocked to see him sleeping. He reached over and shook him, and Hatsume snapped his head up, looking around lazily.

"What are you doing?" Omakase whispered as Hatsume stretched. "This is the most important test you'll ever take, and you're just sleeping?"

"Oh, I finished it already." Hatsume looked over, bored. "I finished it in like an hour. Did you really think that I would get stumped on a test that I spent two years preparing for?" Cementoss came by and collected their papers. "Besides, it was easy. Math is fun, and history is easy. The only problem I had was on the English section." He tilted his head back, rubbing his eyes. "I hate that language so much. Why does one word have, like, nine different meanings? And you can only tell the meaning based on what part of the word they stress? How do they get anything done in America?"

"Attention, please." Cementoss was back at the front of the room. "At this point, I will brief you on the practical exam. In previous years, we had the students fight each other; however, it has been determined that this gives some students an unfair advantage. To prevent this, everyone will be split into six groups and assigned to a specific battle area." He pressed a button on his pedestal, and a picture of four brown robots appeared on the screen behind him. "In each battle area, these faux villains will hunt you down. Your task is to destroy as many robots as you can in the fifteen-minute time period. Each robot is worth a certain number of points; after fifteen minutes, we will add up the total number of points of all the faux villains you defeated, and you will be given a score. The point values will increase based on how powerful the faux villain is; the weakest one is worth one point, then the intermediate one is worth two points, and the hardest one is worth three points."

A voice called out from the crowd. "What about the fourth one? You only mentioned three."

"An excellent point," Cementoss responded. "This fourth faux villain is extremely strong; in testing, only 30% of pro heroes were able to defeat it." Hatsume and Omakase gulped. "It is not recommended you try to fight it, due to its size and strength. However," he paused for a moment, letting his warning sink in, "the school has decided to reward anyone who manages to defeat it. Destroying an Ultra-level faux villain will give you one hundred points." The auditorium filled with shocked whispers, and Cementoss raised his hands. "Be mindful of your own limitations, young ones. Even I was not able to defeat one. We shall begin in twenty minutes. When you receive your station assignment, get changed and head to the designated battle zone."

As Hatsume and Omakase waved goodbye to each other as they left, Hatsume felt a strange feeling in his stomach. He turned around, trying to shake it off, but it persisted. He ignored it, and as he arrived at the battle ground, he began stretching his arms, loosening them up. Suddenly, the feeling returned and struck him with a wave of nausea. He collapsed, vison spinning. He saw several other applicants collapsing around him, and looked around wildly. He saw one applicant smirking, rubbing his hands together rapidly. He heard a horn go off and the doors opened. The applicant stopped rubbing his hands and took off, and the vertigo instantly went away. Hatsume stood up and charged after the others. _Trying to cheat, huh? Well, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve as well. _As he turned a corner, a large robot cut him off. He quickly raised his hand and the robot froze, glowing yellow. He delivered a rapid barrage of punches to the robot, and saw the applicant from before. He aimed one final punch at him, and the yellow glow broke. The robot shot towards the applicant, narrowly missing him as it smashed into two others, destroying all three. The shocked applicant whipped his head around and saw Hatsume smirking at him. He rubbed his hands together and winked at the dumbfounded teen, then ran off to find another robot.

After about thirteen minutes, Hatsume had accumulated over 58 points. He panted, nursing a cut on his left knuckle. _Alright, I think I might be in the lead right now._The ground rumbled, and he and a few others around him backed up, looking for the source. Suddenly, a massive rock came shooting at them. Someone screamed, and Hatsume threw his hands up before he even saw it. It froze, inches from his finger, glowing. As the other teens got out of the way, Hatsume heard a metallic clunk. He looked over the rock and saw a group of four Ultra-level robots. His face went white as he saw the sheer size of them. They stood over a hundred feet tall, and were crushing everything in their path. Applicants screamed and ran, and Hatsume quickly began hitting the still-frozen rock. When the glow broke, it rocketed towards one of the robots, almost as fast as a bullet. He cheered as it smashed directly into the eye of the robot, but froze as all four robots turned their gaze to him, undamaged. As they charged at him, he turned and ran, freezing objects to try and slow their movements. A yell behind him made him freeze in place. Whipping his head around, he saw two applicants on the ground. One was unconscious, and the other was struggling to drag him to safety.

"Help!" she screamed as the robots grew nearer. Hatsume was running before he knew it. He sprinted towards them and, just as the massive tracks were about to crush them, he froze the robot. It glowed, pulsing as he sweated.

"Do you have a strength-type Quirk?" he yelled to the girl. She nodded, remembering how she saw him fighting the robots. She stood up and hauled her arm back, then shot it forwards. As Hatsume watched in awe, her forearm began smashing into the robot faster than he could see, like a jackhammer. Finally, the glow broke, and the robot, having sustained such a high amount of kinetic energy, shot into the air. It crashed into another robot, and both exploded in a massive burst of smoke. Hatsume grinned at the girl, and they both ran towards the other two. He froze the closest one and began hitting it alongside the girl. The other robot barreled towards them, but Hatsume delivered one final punch as the first robot unfroze, blasting towards the other. They collided in a massive explosion like the other two, but the head fell off of one of them and hurtled down towards the duo. Suddenly, a blur shot between the two, and the other applicant, the one who was unconscious, leapt at the falling head, arm out. As the head touched his fingers, it suddenly rocketed back into the sky, flying off into the distance. He landed in front of the two.

"Shock Reflection," he said, smiling. "I can reflect any force in the opposite direction." Hatsume grinned, and the horn went off.

"Time's up! Please report any injuries to the nearest official, and you are now free to leave. Thank you for applying to U.A!" As Cementoss's voice faded out, Hatsume rubbed his knuckle and winced as he felt tendons. Looking down, his entire knuckle, from his index finger to his pinky, was split open from the repeated hits. The girl gasped in shock.

"You need to get that looked at!" she said as Hatsume knelt down, pain clouding his mind. The guy helped him stand, and the two walked him over to the entrance, where a small woman in a nurse's outfit was standing.

"Oh dear," the woman said, seeing his hand, "what on earth did you do to yourself?" She pulled his hand closer and planted a big, sloppy kiss on his knuckle. He recoiled in disgust, but was amazed to see the cut close itself up, all the blood disappearing. "Now don't you go doing whatever it was you did again," the lady called as he walked away, "I don't want to have to see you all the time in my office!"

* * *

Afterwards, he met up with Omakase and another friend, Jataka Netsuke, for dinner. Netsuke was a short, curvy girl that had known the two for a long time. She had been recommended for entry into U.A, and was eager to hear about the trials her friends had gone through. "Man," Omakase said, sipping his milkshake, "those robots were tough. How many points do you think you got, Hatsume?" He quickly counted on his fingers. "I think I might have gotten around 40 or so. I bet you got like 50."

Hatsume nodded. "I'm certain I got at least 58. Did anyone in your battle ground manage to defeat one of those giant ones?"

"One kid tried." Omakase shuddered at the memory. "It literally flattened him like a sheet of paper. Luckily, that guy's Quirk made him super elastic or something, because he was fine, but jeez. What about you?"

Hatsume rubbed the back of his head, looking away. "I teamed up with some girl and we ended up defeating four." Omakase spit out his milkshake on Hatsume as Netsuke laughed.

"What? How did you do that?" he asked, loudly, drawing several glares from the other customers.

"It was actually kinda easy," Hatsume said, shrugging. "She had a Quirk that let her hit things super-fast, like a jackhammer; combined with my Stasis, those robots didn't stand a chance." Netsuke raised an eyebrow.

"She can move her arm like a jackhammer, you say?" A lecherous grin crossed her face, and Hatsume threw his napkin at her, rolling his eyes.

* * *

A week later, he was playing a video game when a small seven-year-old girl with pink dreadlocks rushed into the room holding an envelope. "Toschi!" Mei called, running to him, "It's here! It's here! Open it up!"

He laughed at his little cousin, then took the envelope and placed it on the table. He tore open one side of it and a small projector slid out. It activated, and a small, white mouse-like creature wearing a suit appeared.

"Hello! I am Principal Nezu of U.A. Academy! We're sending you this message to inform you of your results in the entrance exam!" Mei clutched his arm, bouncing up and down in excitement, to her cousin's amusement. "Toschi Hatsume, you performed exceptionally well in the exam. You received a 97% on the written exam, the second highest in the pool of applicants." Mei gasped, and Toschi's jaw dropped. "As for the practical exam, you managed to accumulate 58 points from various level robots. That alone would put you in the top eight, but you and another applicant took your exam Plus Ultra! You two worked together to defeat four of our Ultra-level villains; you two were the only people to defeat one! As a result, we have decided to award you each… two hundred points! Congratulations, and welcome to U.A!"

As the message ended, Mei wrapped her dumbfounded cousin in a big hug. "You did it! You did it!" she exclaimed, jumping in the air. "You got in! I gotta go tell mommy and daddy!" As the young girl ran out of the room, Toschi sat staring at the wall where the projection was. _I got in. I did it. I got in to U.A!_His phone rang, and he picked it up.

"I got it!" Omakase yelled, joy filling his voice.

"Me too! I got in too!" Toschi cheered, laughing. The reality of that statement struck him, and a tear slipped out. "I got in!"


	3. Chapter 2: Apprehension

Chapter 2: Apprehension

Toschi opened the door to Class 1-B, his homeroom. We walked into a room full of talking and spotted Omakase and Netsuke. He greeted his friends, and spotted the two students from the exam, who waved at him. As he waved back, the door opened behind him and he heard the class gasp. "Hello, boys and girls," a sultry voice said, and he turned around to see Midnight strutting into the room. "As I'm sure many of you are aware, I am Midnight. I will be your home room teacher here at U.A, and I will also teach Modern Hero Art History. Please take your seats at this time." As the students settled down, she gazed out over them. "Now, I'd like for you all to stand up and tell the class your name and Quirk, going by seating order. Not only will this allow you all to get to know your classmates, but by learning your classmates' Quirks, you can begin strategizing for some of our more 'practical' training."

The girl he met at the entrance exam stood up. She was relatively tall for a girl; around 5'6", and had dark brown hair wrapped up in a ponytail. "My name is Yanako Kushiro, and my Quirk is called 'Jackhammer'. It allows me to punch and kick things extremely fast, like a jackhammer." She sat down, and the boy from the entrance exam stood up. He was slightly taller than Kushiro, and had neatly combed blond hair.

"My name is Tomasa Mutsuhito. My Quirk is called 'Shock Reflection', and with it I can reflect any force in the direction it came from." Next, a short blue-haired girl stood up and gave a bored wave to the class.

"I'm Mizu Ayatsuru. My Quirk is called 'Fluidity' and it allows me to control any liquid." The blond girl behind her stood up, but was interrupted by someone on the other side of the room.

"What kind of weak Quirk is that?" Toschi recognized him as the person that tried to cheat at the entrance exam. "How'd you get in here, did you make it rain on the robots?" His callous attitude brought glares from his classmates, and Ayatsuru snarled and clenched her fist. The teen's face turned purple, and he gasped, panicking. Ayatsuru released her fist, and he wheezed, face slowly turning back to normal.

"I can control any liquid," Ayatsuru said, glaring at him, "from the hydraulic fluid in those robots, to the blood in your body. Understand?" He nodded, grimacing. Midnight looked between the two, amused. She motioned to the girl behind Ayatsuru, who rolled her eyes.

"My name is Yu Takeyama, and my Quirk is 'Gigantification'. I can grow to be over 60 feet tall." she said, sitting down before she had even finished talking. Omakase stood up.

"My name is Ketaki Omakase, and my Quirk is called 'Spider'. I can do anything a spider can, like climbing walls, seeing in the dark, and producing webs."

A short girl in the next row raised her hand. "Do your webs come out of your butt, like on a spider?" The class burst out laughing, and Omakase snickered.

"Actually, I can produce my webs from anywhere on my body," he said. "I usually produce them from my fingers, though." The next student stood up. He was very tall; Toschi estimated him to be over six feet. He appeared to be normal, and had black hair, but when he turned to the class, they saw his eyes were completely white.

"I am Shiro Watanabe, and my Quirk is called 'Ash'. I can turn things I touch into a fine powder that I can control; however, it does not work on organic substances." He bowed and sat down as the student behind him stood up, a twitchy, messy-haired boy.

"My name is Shindo Hake, and my Quirk is called 'Stimulant'. My reaction time is nearly 100 times faster than normal and I can think and move much faster than a typical human." He sat back down, fidgeting with his pencil. The girl from earlier stood up, beaming. She had black hair with bright purple streaks in it and had several piercings.

"Hi! I'm Urisu Kaiza! My Quirk is called 'Glitch' and it lets me teleport short distances and I can control electronics!" She waved to the class, then sat down. Toschi stood up.

"My name is Toschi Hatsume. My Quirk is called 'Stasis', and it allows me to lock any movable object in a set position. Once I release it, any kinetic energy that was applied to the object is released and transferred to the object." Netsuke, who was behind him, stood up.

"Hello! I'm Jataka Netsuke. My Quirk is called 'Silent Night'. I can block out the hearing of anyone within fifty feet of me." She sat down, smiling, as the girl behind her stood up. She had large, round glasses and wore her white hair in a bun, held in place with a pair of chopsticks. She was wearing bright purple eyeliner and lipstick, and her eyes were striking pink.

"I am Kami Shikora. My Quirk is 'Origami', and I can control paper. I can change the strength of paper to the point where a single sheet is bulletproof, and I can also fold it into weapons." She held her hand up, and a piece of paper floated up from Midnight's desk. As the class watched in awe, it rapidly folded itself into a knife, which fell to the ground. It stuck in the floor, then unfolded and became a paper crane, which flew around the room as she sat down.

The student at the front of the third row stood up. He was dark-skinned and had deep black hair and dark eyes. "I am Shirokko Kalantari. My Quirk is called 'Sandstorm', and I can control sand and dirt; I can make it into a cloud to obscure my opponents' vison or compress it into a weapon." The next student rose. He was a tall, bulky person, and his body was yellow with orange dots all over it. His body was somewhat lumpy, and seemed to jiggle as he moved.

"My name is Nagano Shinsi. My Quirk is called 'Sponge', and I can absorb and use any attack that hits me." He sat down as the next student got up. She was a very short girl with the appearance of a falcon; she was covered in brown and tan feathers and had sharp yellow eyes, her arms were wings and seemed to have finger-like feathers on the ends, and instead of feet, she had brown bird-like legs with large talons that clicked on the floor.

"Hi!" she said, beak curled in a smile. "I'm Moki Tsubasa, but you can just call me 'Moki'. My Quirk is 'Peregrine', and it allows me to fly really fast and see over four miles! I can also tear through a steel door with my talons." She beamed and sat down, fiddling with one of her feathers. The student behind her stood up. He was very tall, and appeared to be rather fat. He had white hair and his skin was orange and appeared to have brown rock-like protrusions on his elbows.

"I'm Yakuna Sasaki," he said in a gravelly voice. "And I'm not as fat as I look, I swear!" He laughed a big hearty laugh, and the others couldn't help but chuckle along. "My Quirk is called 'Eruption', and I produce magma out of my stomach, which I can shoot up to 50 feet." As he sat down, the red-headed boy behind him stood.

"I guess we're pretty similar, huh? My name's Moretsuna Kimura, and my Quirk is 'Heat Vision'. I can increase the temperature of any object I look at for as long as I can keep my eyes open." He sat down, and Sasaki leaned back, fist bumping him

At the front of the fourth row, a skinny, black-haired boy stood up. "I'm Jikato Umakire, and my Quirk is 'Overcharge'. When I move, I build up energy that I can use for both offense and defense." The girl behind him stood up. She had green hair and light blue eyes, and was rather curvy.

"Hello, I'm Michiko Shizuka. My Quirk is 'Ricochet' and it makes any object I throw bounce off of whatever it hits and speed up." She sat down as the next girl stood up. The next girl was a short, skinny, pale girl with white hair and grey, tired eyes. She looked at her classmates with a bored, exasperated expression.

"Yokai Seishin. I have a Quirk called 'Possession', and I can possess anyone's body for up to a minute." She sat down, looking at the desk top as the rude student from earlier stood. He was tall, and had brown hair and a thin body.

"I'm Takamatsu Kurami, and my Quirk is called 'Cricket'. When I rub my hands together, it creates an ultrasonic sound that can disrupt electronics and cause nausea and vertigo in humans." He made eye contact with Toschi and glared as he sat down. Behind him, the last student stood. He was a muscular, well-built man with yellow eyes, but was surprisingly verbose when he spoke.

"Greetings. I am Jokan Reikokuna, and my Quirk is called 'Transform'. My Quirk gives me the ability to transform into any animal I can think of." He bowed and sat down, hands clasped together. Midnight clapped her hands together.

"Excellent! Now that we're all introduced, I'd like for you all to get changed." She held up a gym uniform. "Each of you has a locker in the locker rooms with your name on it. Inside your locker is a custom-tailored uniform for you to wear. Meet me outside in twenty minutes!" As the students filed out of the room, Omakase caught up to Toschi and Netsuke.

"What do you guys think we're doing?" he asked. Toschi shrugged while Netsuke thought.

"Maybe we're being tested?" she asked. "Remember how we had those physical fitness tests each year in middle school? I think it's like that."

Omakase rolled his eyes. "50 yen says you're wrong."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, everyone was outside. Midnight stood before them, whip in her hand. "Now that we are all here, you all are going to take a Quirk Apprehension test. It is a physical fitness test where you are allowed to use your Quirks to your advantage." Omakase groaned and slapped a 50 yen note into Netsuke's hand as she smirked. "You cannot interfere with the other students, but any Quirks that give you a physical advantage over your classmates are welcome." She held up a softball, and pointed her whip at Toschi. "Hatsume! Come over here." As he approached, Midnight addressed the students. "The first event we are going to do is the ball throw. In each event, you will receive a score." A sadistic look came over her face, and the students shivered. "The loser gets a punishment," she said, cracking her whip. She turned to Toschi, an innocent smile on her face. "No pressure!"

Toschi gulped and closed his eyes. He held the ball out in front of him, and it flashed yellow. He quickly began punching it, the glow growing brighter as he struck the ball. Finally, the glow disappeared, and the ball rocketed off into the sky. Toschi followed it with his eyes until he couldn't see it anymore, and the tracker in Midnight's hand went off. "Well done Hatsume!" she said, turning the tracker to him. "826 meters!" A short round of applause came from the students, and Midnight turned to call the next contender.

The events went smoothly. In the ball throw, Toschi came in first, then again in the sit-ups. In the repeated side steps, Umakire came in first. Moki won the 50-meter dash in 2.41 seconds, and Reikokuna won the grip strength as a gorilla, with over 600 kg, the long jump as a kangaroo, and the seated toe-touch as a snake, although his classmates claimed that was cheating. The final event was the distance run, and although it was close, Moki came in first, narrowly beating Reikokuna. After the test was over, the loser was revealed.

"Come on," Seishin groaned. "I don't even need to be strong like those guys to be a hero, I can just possess the villains and make them arrest themselves."

Sasaki looked over. "Seishin, you came in last in literally every event."

She blushed and turned away, pouting. "Whatever. What's my 'punishment' going to be?" Midnight thought for a moment.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I was hoping that one of the boys would lose~" she said in a sultry tone that sent blood rushing to the faces of every boy in the class. "Alright, your punishment will be that until you can beat one of your classmates in at least one event, you will have to retake this test every day." Seishin sighed and hung her head. "As for the rest of you," Midnight called, "get changed! We've got a long lesson planned for today, and then tomorrow is combat training!" The class gulped, and Toschi looked at her, shocked._Combat training?_


	4. Chapter 3: Sports Festival: Round 1

Chapter 3: The Sports Festival: Round 1

_Present day, a few days after Toschi's funeral…_

"So let me get this straight," Kaminari asked, "the zero-point bots used to be worth a hundred points?" Class 1-A was hanging out in the common room a few days after the funeral when Mei decided to drop by. As they all talked and laughed, Mei began talking about her cousin Toschi's time at U.A, eight years before them. She had just finished telling them about his results from the entrance exam and the Quirk Apprehension test when Kaminari had asked her the question.

"Yeah, they changed it a few years ago," Midoriya answered, "too many people were getting hurt trying to fight them, and some kids would ignore the rest of the villains and go straight for the big ones, so they decided to make them worth zero." Kaminari stared at him blankly for a moment, then his eyes lit up as he understood.

"So Mei," Uraraka asked the pinkette, "did Toschi participate in the school festival? Or did he drop out of the hero course before that?"

"Oh, no, he was in it. He dropped out a few weeks after, though." Mei took a sip of her soda. "Did you guys know his class is the reason you couldn't wear your costumes in the festival?"

"Oh, I wanna hear this," Mina said, scooching closer. Sato looked at his classmates.

"Are we just going to ignore the fact that MT. LADY was in his homeroom?" he asked. "I didn't even know she went here!"

"Forget that!" Mineta yelled. "You're missing the big picture! Mt. Lady was in Midnight's homeroom! Do you think she would have some pictures of her when she was our age? I should go ask her next cla-" He was interrupted by a strip of tape wrapping around his mouth.

"That's enough from you," Sero said. "Go ahead, Hatsume."

"Alright," she said, leaning back…

* * *

_Eight years ago…_

U.A. held their annual Sports Festival a few weeks after the start of the year. As expected, all sixteen of the students that made it into the final round of the First-Year's Sports Festival were from the hero course. Of the sixteen, eleven came from Class 1-B: Akijaso, Seishin, Reikokuna, Kushiro, Shikora, Netsuke, Omakase, Toschi, Moki, Sasaki, and Kurami. The other five were from Class 1-A. The students were all wearing their hero costumes, waving to their friends and family. Midnight and Cementoss would referee the one-on-one fights, and the pro hero Present Mic, the student's English teacher, was announcing the matchups for the first round.

**Match 1: Reikokuna vs. Seishin**

**Match 2: Omakase vs. Akamachi (1-A)**

**Match 3: Masuku (1-A) vs. Moki**

**Match 4: Shikora vs. Murasashe (1-A)**

**Match 5: Sasaki vs. Katakana (1-A)**

**Match 6: Netsuke vs. Kushiro**

**Match 7: Akijaso vs. Murayama (1-A)**

**Match 8: Hatsume vs. Kurami**

As the students gathered by their friends to watch the fights, three people approached Toschi in the student seating area. They all had pink hair and yellow eyes, and a little girl jumped across the row of chairs to him. "Toschi!" Mei yelled, hugging him and drawing laughter and adoring coos from his friends. "We came to see you fight!" she said. "When are you up?"

"Hey Hatsume, is that your sister?" Sasaki asked. Toschi shook his head.

"No, this is my little cousin Mei. Sorry Mei, I'm up last." She smiled.

"That's all right! I'll use this time to psyche out the other students!" She dashed off, and Toschi laughed, watching her whisper insults into the ears of the other students. Sasaki laughed, a deep booming echo.

"She's adorable!" He turned around to see Toschi hug the two adults and sit back down as they scooped Mei up and carried her to their seats. "Are those your parents, Hatsume?" he asked. Toschi's face fell, and Netsuke and Omakase winced.

"No, they're my aunt and uncle," Toschi sighed, "my parents aren't here." Sasaki looked at him in confusion, then Toschi spoke up again. "My parents died in a car accident a few years ago." Sasaki's face fell, and he placed a massive, comforting hand on Toschi's shoulder. "A group of bank robbers were running from the police, and they crashed into my parents' car." He brought his eyes to meet Sasaki, and Sasaki saw fire in them. "I'm going to be a hero so that criminals like them don't hurt innocent people. If they want to fight, then I'll end it before anyone gets hurt, or killed. That's why I want to be a hero."

"Well, now I feel bad," Sasaki said, rubbing his neck. "I wanted to be a hero so that I could show off my sweet muscles." He flexed his arm, and his belly wobbled. He sighed and looked down, crestfallen, as his friends laughed at him.

An enthusiastic cry from Present Mic brought Toschi's attention to the stage, where the fight was about to start. Reikokuna's costume consisted of simple cargo pants and hiking boots, and he was shirtless, showing off his incredibly toned muscles to the crowd. Seishin was wearing a flowing white cloak with black designs along the edge, and a veil over her face. Toschi could see that the designs on her costume were skulls and bones, fitting for her "ghostly" theme and personality. Midnight snapped her flogger, and the battle began.

Reikokuna began to change; his arms swelled and grew, while his legs shrunk down. His face grew flat and his brows jutted out as he became his usual animal form: a silverback gorilla. He roared and charged across the stage towards Seishin, who had begun to levitate and become slightly transparent, cloak flowing around her. As Reikokuna leapt, arms raised to smash her to the ground, she darted towards him, flowing into his chest and disappearing. Reikokuna landed on the ground and shook his head, roaring, until he finally stood still, eyes grey. He turned and began to walk towards the border of the stage, then began to run. He leapt into the air over the border and Seishin slipped out of him as Reikokuna regained control over his own body. He instantly shot his arm out and grabbed her, throwing her in front of her as he changed into a bat. He flapped his wings, hovering above Seishin, who was groaning on the ground, arm over the boundary.

"Seishin is out of bounds!" Midnight called. "Reikokuna wins!" A cheer rose from the crowd as he turned back into a human and bowed. He turned and offered his hand to Seishin, who huffed and looked away, but accepted it.

"I should have stayed in for a little longer," she pouted, "I would have gotten you if I had."

"I'm sure you would have," Reikokuna responded, nodding his head. "I barely had enough time to avoid going out of bounds myself." As they cleared the stage, the next two contenders walked onto the field. Omakase wore a full-body black skin suit that left his fingertips and toe tips exposed, and had a strange set of goggles on his face. They had eight "eyes", six of which were actually cameras. It allowed him to see in every direction around him, as a spider can. Akamachi, the student from Class 1-A, had on a green suit with intricate metal plating on the chest.

The match started, and Akamachi stomped his foot down. Instantly, a forest of trees shot up around the stage, obscuring the audience's view. The crowd heard rustling, but otherwise, they couldn't dee anything. Reikokuna and Seishin rejoined their classmates to watch the fight. As the crowd waited, a massive burst of webs shot into the air and wrapped around the forest. The trees creaked and groaned as they bent inwards, then finally uprooted, flying towards the center. Omakase whirled the trees around like a whip, launching them at Akamachi, who quickly grew a thick net of vines, catching them. The vines shot forth, and Omakase narrowly avoided them, leaping into the air. As he landed, a thick branch whipped around, crashing into his head. He flew back, but shot a web at the ground, catching himself before he flew out of bounds. As he groggily looked up, a vine cracked like a whip, striking him in the chest. He fell back, and was about to get up when Midnight interrupted him.

"Omakase is out of bounds! Akamachi wins!" The crowd roared as Omakase looked down in shock. His left leg was over the line. He sighed and walked back to the waiting room.

"That was a tough fight," Sasaki said. "I could have easily won, but it's tough for most people to counter something like that." Netsuke nodded as Moki stood up, flapping her wings and flying into the air. She landed softly on her side of the stage, reaching into a pocket on her costume.

She had a simple tan wrap around her chest and a set of cargo shorts. A brown belt wrapped around her waist and held several small pouches. She pulled out a metal object and fastened it to her beak; it was a metal shroud with an extremely sharp point. She waved to the crowd, enjoying the attention as her opponent came up. Masuku, the 1-A student, was wearing a dark grey skin suit with gold accents across the chest and waist, and had a set of white leather gloves on. She narrowed her eyes and took a fighting stance, observing Moki, who was fiddling with one of her head feathers, rocking to the beat of an imaginary tune. She noticed Masuku looking and removed her beak shroud, giving her a big smile and waving. "Hi!" she called. "I'm Moki! You're Masuku, right?" Masuku ignored her, and Moki pouted, folding her wings. "Rude."

"Match three, start!" Midnight called, and Moki quickly reattached her beak shroud as Masuku placed her hands on the ground. The sand on the stage began to swirl and gravitate towards her, and as Moki flew into the air, the sand glowed bright orange. It cooled down, and a glass spear shot at Moki. She swiftly dodged, catching it in her talons. She shot towards the ground like a warplane, dropping the spear at Masuku and pulling up. Masuku sent a wave of molten glass at the spear, which melted into it. She launched more glass at Moki, who dodged and narrowed her eyes, reaching her talons up to a pouch on her belt. She pulled them out, and Toschi saw a glint of steel. She rocketed down, claws up by her chest. A glass spear shot up, and her talons flashed as they shot forwards. The glass disintegrated as her metal-reinforced claws slashed through it. Masuku ducked as Moki's talons raked through the air just centimeters above her head.

"Tsubasa!" Midnight yelled, snapping her whip. "Be careful! Any serious injuries will result in your loss!" Moki rolled her eyes, but sheathed her claw covers. She launched herself into the sky, then swooped around and narrowly avoided a storm of glass. She grabbed Masuku's arm and threw her into the air, then caught her as she fell down. She flew her to the side of the stage and gently set her down outside of the boundary. Midnight cracked her whip. "Masuku is out of bounds! Tsubasa wins!" Moki took off her beak shroud and waved to the cheering crowd, smiling. She turned to Masuku, who was grumpily dusting herself off, and held out her hand. Masuku stared at it for a moment, then smiled and shook it. As the two left to their respective rooms, Sasaki stood up.

"I'm going to be up after this, so I'm going to go get ready. See you in the semi-finals Hatsume!" Toschi waved to him as he left, then greeted Omakase, who had just returned from seeing Recovery Girl.

"Great fight, Omakase!" Netsuke said. "That was really close!" He smiled and rubbed his jaw.

"Thanks, those trees hit really hard." He stretched, then sat down between Netsuke and Toschi. "Who's up next?"

Toschi looked out at the stage. "Shikora's up, and she's against someone from 1-A, Murasashe, I think." The two contenders walked out onto the field; Shikora was wearing her usual makeup and hairstyle, but had a pink skirt and a white coat as well. She had thigh-high white stockings and black shoes, and she was fiddling with one of her pockets. Her opponent, Murasashe, was wearing a dark green gown with a snakeskin pattern. They bowed to each other, then took fighting stances. Midnight started the match, and the two acted instantly.

Shikora's pockets flew open and dozens of sheets of paper flew out, circling her. Murasashe rose into the air, and Toschi saw that her lower body was that of a snake. Her tail coiled around, and her hair rose up, like a cobra's hood. Several sheets of paper folded up into darts, and Shikora thrust her arm forwards. The darts shot towards Murasashe, who spun around and whipped her tail at them, knocking them to the side. Shikora narrowed her eyes, and several more sheets of paper began folding themselves. They combined and folded, and a massive paper snake landed on the ground, hissing. Shikora tilted her head, and the snake slithered forwards, fangs bared. Murasashe leapt at the paper snake, and as the two grappled, Shikora ran towards her. She leapt in the air as a long paper rope swirled around her, and threw the end around Murasashe. It wrapped itself around her, and as she looked up, she saw Shikora staring down at her, a paper sword pointed at her. Murasashe sighed. "I give up."

The whip cracked. "Murasashe surrenders!" Midnight called out. "Shikora wins!" The crowd roared, and all of the paper floated back into the air, returning to Shikora's pockets as she waved to the crowd. The two exited the stage, and Toschi his classmates cheered as Sasaki walked out, waving. Sasaki and Moki had become the class's most beloved students, due to their infectious joy and humor. Sasaki's costume consisted of fireproof pants and cast-iron boots. He once boasted that they weighed more that Moki did; it was later discovered that a single boot was heavier than her. He had really big feet, and Moki weighed almost nothing, not only because she was incredibly short and skinny, but also because that, as a bird, she had hollow bones to allow her to fly easier. Netsuke waved goodbye to her friends, and left to the changing room to prepare for her match.

His opponent was Katakana, a girl from Class 1-A. She was wearing a yellow suit with black accents across the back and arms, and a set of antennae protruded from her head. A set of transparent wings sprouted from her back, occasionally buzzing. She looked at him in disdain, rolling her eyes. Midnight cracked her whip, signaling the start of the battle, and Sasaki grinned. His cheeks puffed up, and he spouted forth a river of lava. Katakana tried to take off, but an arc of magma forced her to duck. She looked up at him in shock and found that her vision was obstructed by black stone. She whipped her head around frantically, seeing walls of lava cooling into a thick cocoon of obsidian all around her. The roof closed off, and everything went pitch-black. She faintly heard the crowd cheering, muffled through the ground. She nervously buzzed her wings and instantly clapped her hands over her ears as the obsidian reflected the high-pitched sound back at her, the sound echoing through her prison. A dull thud cut through the noise, and the walls shook. She heard the booms coming closer, and a fist broke through the side of the wall. She screamed and backed up as the hand grabbed onto a large chunk of the obsidian and clenched, shattering the rock like ice. Sasaki poked his head inside, concerned.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "The match is over, Midnight said you were immobilized." Katakana shakily nodded, taking deep breaths as she stood up and exited her sarcophagus. She heard a sickening crunch behind her, and turned to see Sasaki take a bite out of a chunk of obsidian. She stared in confusion, and he wiped his mouth. "My body doesn't produce actual lava, it's just really hot and has high pressure. I eat rocks and stuff that melts into lava." He casually walked away, biting the rock like an apple. She looked to Midnight, who was just as confused as she was, then buzzed her wings and hovered over to her dressing room.

Netsuke and Kushiro entered the stage as Cementoss removed the obsidian. Netsuke's costume consisted of a black vest and shorts, and she had a belt holding several smoke grenades. Kushiro's costume was orange and reminded Toschi of a construction worker's outfit; she had a helmet with a spotlight on it, and was wearing gloves with metal knuckles. They extended to her forearms, where retractable chisels rested. They waved to each other, and Midnight raised her whip. "Ready?" she asked. The two nodded and got into their stances. Midnight brought her whip down. "Start!"

Kushiro flipped the chisels over her fists and dove down, fists flying. She quickly burrowed into the ground, a cloud of dust billowing out behind her. Netsuke looked around on the ground, then slowly picked up a loose rock and tossed it some feet away. It landed, and the ground under it collapsed, shredded to pieces by Kushiro's chisels. Netsuke placed her hands on her head, and her eyes flashed white. She threw another rock, and it landed. The ground stayed still. She smirked and tossed a smoke bomb down into the cavern Kushiro had excavated. A thick cloud of black smoke filled the hole, and Kushiro emerged, coughing. She whipped around, trying to see through the smoke. She could see glimpses of the crowd cheering, but heard nothing. _Alright, she deafened me, and the smoke bomb took away my sight. Guess I'll have to use my other senses. _She flipped the chisels up and placed her hands on the ground. She could feel a slight vibration through the cement as Netsuke's boots approached. She whipped around and threw out her hand, catching the kick Netsuke was aiming at her. Netsuke disappeared into the smoke, and Kushiro placed her fists on the ground. They began to smash down, the stage shaking as she punched faster and faster. The ground burst upwards, and a rush of wind blew the smoke away. Kushiro smirked and turned around, only to receive a kick to the temple. She staggered, but held her footing and leapt at Netsuke. The two traded blows, then Kushiro spun and slammed her foot into Netsuke's midsection. It hammered into her, and Netsuke gasped as the wind left her lungs. She felt something crack in her ribs, and collapsed. She wheezed as she tried to catch her breath, and threw another smoke bomb, rolling away. It exploded in Kushiro's face and she stumbled back, trying to fan the smoke away. Suddenly, her hearing returned just as she heard Midnight crack her whip.

"Netsuke is out of bounds! Kushiro wins!" She looked at Netsuke, who was staring at the line her hand was over, crestfallen. She walked over to her friend and smiled, helping her up. The two limped off stage together, and Cementoss began repairing the stage. Toschi greeted Sasaki as he returned to the student section, grinning.

"That was great!" he exclaimed. "Can you control the rate at which the lava cools or something?" Sasaki nodded.

"Somewhat. It depends on what type of rock the lava is made out of." He held up the piece of obsidian. "Like, for obsidian like this, I have to keep my inside at a certain temperature and pressure, and I need to eat high-silica rhyolite. Luckily, my dad owns a mining company, so I have plenty of options." He bit into the rock as the next two students, Akijaso and a 1-A student, Murayama, entered the arena. Toschi stood up.

"I'd love to watch this, but I should probably go get ready for my fight. See you guys!" His classmates waved to him as he left and descended into the inner hallways of the stadium, entering the waiting room.

He found the cardboard box that contained his hero costume. Unlike everyone else in his class, Toschi came from a long family of inventors, and he had elected to build his own suit. Not that he hadn't submitted a design to several companies; they had responded that the technology he was requesting didn't exist yet, so he chose to create the technology himself. He slipped into the skin suit and fastened the chest piece on, then pulled his reinforced gloves over his hands and lowered a mirrored yellow visor over his eyes. His final design was light blue with electric yellow accents streaking across his arms and chest, and linking to his boots. In addition, he had several pieces of yellow carbon fiber armor on his shoulders, knees, hips, and elbows. He pressed one of many buttons on his chest piece, and the yellow stripes on his suit began to glow, the fabric seemingly moving on its own. He had integrated nanobots into his suit, and they provided not only additional protection against heat, cold, and electricity, but could also form into various gadgets he deemed necessary. The visor had a small holographic screen that showed him diagnostic information for the suit, and also helped him aim when he was using his Quirk to move things.

The crowd roared above him, and Akijaso opened the door, coughing. A wisp of smoke was curling up from his back, and his hair was singed. "Hey," he panted, "you up?"

"Yeah," Toschi said, eyeing him in confusion. "You okay?" Akijaso nodded, leaning against the wall.

"Apparently his Quirk was 'Fire Breath'." Toschi winced as Akijaso opened his mouth. His teeth and tongue were charred black, and a small trickle of blood leaked down his gums. "Evidently, my mouth is NOT fireproof, but neither was his skin. I'm lucky I had this leather coat on. Good luck! I might miss your match, I gotta go see Recovery Girl." He waved to Toschi and staggered out of the room. Toschi blinked, utterly confused, then opened the door to the stage and walked into the light.

The crowd was roaring, filling his ears. He ascended the stairs to the stage, where Kurami was standing opposite him. He had on a brown suit with leather padding on the chest, a leather helmet with black bug-eye goggles, black boots, and strange gloves that left his palms exposed. The backs of the gloves had small speakers on them, aimed down his arm. Toschi and Kurami locked eyes and smirked. Kurami had slightly mellowed out some in the past few weeks, but he was still just as arrogant and sly as he was when Toschi first met him. Midnight's whip rose into the air, and Kurami knelt down as Toschi put his fists up. The whip cracked, and Kurami leapt into the air. He soared nearly 50 feet straight up, and Toschi saw several springs retract into his boots. As he sailed down, he placed his hands together and pointed his arms at Toschi. He began to rub his hands together, and a high-pitched whine filled Toschi's head. His vision swam as Kurami landed on top of him, sending him sprawling into the dirt. He tried to stand, but he couldn't get his feet under him.

As he saw Kurami spring towards him, he managed to get onto one knee and rapidly pressed a series of buttons on his chest. His suit glowed, and two small speakers materialized on his shoulders. They emitted a low grumble, and he suddenly spun around, slamming his heel into Kurami's ankle. Toschi finally stood up, speakers still vibrating. Kurami aimed his hands again, but the sound was cancelled out by Toschi's speakers. He scowled and leapt towards Toschi, foot extended in a powerful kick. Toschi slid under him and trailed his fingers in the air. They snagged on Kurami's arm and he froze in the air, glowing yellow. Toschi quickly stood up and reared his fist back. He punched Kurami, and his visor displayed a small arrow showing the direction the force was applied. He readjusted his footing and delivered two more punches, then unfroze Kurami. He soared across the stage, boosted by the additional energy. He frantically tried to stop himself, but he overshot the edge of the stage and slammed into the stadium wall. He slumped down, unconscious, and the stadium filled with cheers. As Toschi raised his arms in victory, one voice caught his ear. He looked to the source and saw Mei, his aunt, and his uncle cheering. Mei climbed onto her father's shoulders and cupped her hands over her mouth.

"Go Toschi!" she screamed. "You're my hero!"

* * *

_Class 1-A's dorm, present day…_

Mei smiled as she thought back to that day. "You know," she said as she grabbed another soda, "even though I didn't want to be a hero, I couldn't stop myself from wondering what he felt then. The crowds cheering you on, the excitement of the fight…" She looked around at her friends, who were listening to her story, rapt with attention. "You guys are lucky."

"So what happened that they chose to ban costumes?" Midoriya asked. Mei thought for a moment.

"That wasn't until the final round, but the quarter- and semi-finals were kind of predictive of it." She looked at her phone, and saw that it was nearly midnight. "Do you guys want me to continue, or is it too late?"

"I really want to hear the rest of this story, Hatsume," Shoji said, and Koda nodded. "We'll be fine." She smirked.

"Well then, the first match of the quarter-finals was Reikokuna versus Akamachi…"

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Well, this has been the longest chapter I've ever written. 4,500 words later, and the first round of the Sports Festival is complete! The next chapter will cover the next two rounds, and then I'll have the final round be a standalone chapter. I love that you guys are reading this story, and I hope you've enjoyed it so far!**


	5. Chapter 4: Sports Festival: Disaster

Chapter 4: The Sports Festival: Disaster

The first match of the second round, the fight between Reikokuna and the 1-A student, Akamachi, had dragged on for over fifteen minutes. Neither of the two seemed to be able to gain an advantage over the other; despite Akamachi sending thick nets of vines and thorns at Reikokuna, he would transform into different animals to escape. Akamachi had quickly learned that creating a forest, as he had in the first match, was a bad idea; Reikokuna, in gorilla form, was a master of the thick brush. Neither of them had managed to get close to their opponent, and it seemed as though the battle would drag on forever. Suddenly, the crowd roared as Reikokuna managed to sneak through the thick vines as a mantis and transform into a massive bear right behind Akamachi, who promptly surrendered. The plants disappeared, and Reikokuna bowed to his opponent, returning to his human form. He bowed to the audience as they cheered, then exited the stage as Cementoss began to repair the holes produced by Akamachi's plants.

Moki stood up and stretched her wings, leaping from her seat in a powerful flurry of wind and soaring over the stadium. She circled the stage for a minute, waiting for Cementoss to finish, then folded her wings back and streaked towards the ground. Her wings flew out to the sides, and she leveled off mere inches from the ground, to the delight of the crowd. She flew over to Shikora, who was watching her in awe, and greeted her friend with a hug. Moki and Shikora had formed a strong bond over their mutual love for "cute things", and were very close to one another. Shikora smiled at her friend. "I know this is going to sound bad, but I'm totally gonna lose to you." She pointed down at Moki's talons. "Those can cut through glass like it's paper; actual paper wouldn't even faze you." Moki laughed at her.

"Shikora, you can make your paper bulletproof; even my claws would have a hard time getting through that." She waved and flew over to her side, where she fitted her beak shroud and talon blades. Midnight raised her whip, and Shikora narrowed her eyes, smirking. _I've got you trapped, Moki._The whip cracked, and instantly a flurry of tiny paper cranes shot forth. Moki shot into the air, but the cranes surrounded her, blocking her vision. She swatted at them, but they were so small and so numerous that she couldn't clear them out. Something wrapped around her neck, and she was yanked towards the ground, squawking. A paper lasso fed into the hands of Shikora, who pulled her down towards the stage. Moki flashed her talons, and a cut appeared on the paper, but it held. She frantically sliced at the paper string, until it finally gave and snapped. She skidded to a halt on the ground, her steel-reinforced talons digging into the cement. Shikora gulped as she saw the menacing claws shred the concrete like foam. Moki rubbed her neck, and a few broken feathers floated to the ground. She gasped and her eyes narrowed. She shot towards Shikora, an ear-piercing screech coming from her mouth. Shikora threw up a massive wall of paper, two feet thick, but Moki's claws sliced through it and latched around her arm. She screamed as Moki dragged her into the sky and threw her. She sailed up for a few seconds, then began to hurtle towards the ground. A wave of paper flew up to her, slowing her fall, but she still hit the ground hard enough to be knocked out. Midnight snapped her whip.

"Shikora retires due to losing consciousness!" she yelled. "Tsubasa wins!" The crowd roared as Moki fluttered over to her friend, who was beginning to stir. She helped the medical robots move her onto the stretcher, then waved to the crowd before leaping into the sky, flying back to her seat as the next two contestants entered the stadium. Sasaki tossed the last piece of gravel into his mouth and slammed his foot down, the heavy iron boot shaking the stage. Kushiro flipped her chisels down and raised her arms. As Midnight raised her whip, Netsuke turned to Toschi.

"Who do you think is going to win, Hatsume?" she asked. "I'd really be okay with either of them winning, but it's you that would have to go up against them if you win your match." Toschi stood up to head to the waiting room, but paused while he responded to her.

"I think Sasaki might win," he said. "Even though Kushiro can tunnel through his lava when it hardens, if he keeps it hot enough it'll stay molten, and she would have to go on the defensive. She packs a punch, but he's an immovable object, and we've already seen how strong he is. I think that if Kushiro wants to win, it'll have to be a ranged fight where he can't hit her." He walked down the stairs as the crowd cheered, and Netsuke turned to the battle.

Sasaki had covered the stage in a thick layer of what looked to be a light grey sponge-like substance. Kushiro burst out of the ground and landed in the middle of it. Her foot sank into it, and she punched at it. It shattered into dust, and she dove back down, destroying more of the substance as Sasaki continued to spout lava all over the stage. The lava was bubbly and cooled extremely fast into more of the grey rock, and Kushiro burst one hand out through the seven-foot-thick layer of rock, panting. Her chisels were completely worn down, and she had numerous scrapes and cuts all over her body, her suit torn in multiple places.

"Fun, isn't it?" Sasaki called to her as she pulled herself out. "It's pumice; relatively fragile, but extremely abrasive. It's so light, it can float on water. And it doesn't take much lava to make either." His cheeks puffed out. "I could go all day." He spit forth more lava that cooled nearly instantly into the pumice, burying Kushiro up to her neck. She grunted and the pumice began to rattle, then it shattered as her arms slowly stopped jackhammering. Her forearms were bloody and covered in a mess of scrapes, her suit nearly nonexistent from the shoulders down to her fingers. She took a step forwards, then slipped and crashed through the pumice, a cloud of grey dust billowing into the air as it shattered under her. A low groan came from the pit.

"I give up…" Kushiro said, coughing from the amount of dust in the air. As the crowd roared, Sasaki leaned down and sunk his hands into the pumice. He picked up the entire stage-sized block as Kushiro looked at him in shock.

"Pumice is super light," he said, "a block like this only weighs around seventy kilos or something. It's nothing to me." He tossed it in the air, and it gently floated down outside the stage. Cementoss placed his hand on it, and it melted into a flow of cement, rolling up the stage and filling in the holes Kushiro had dug. As the two left to their respective sides, the stadium shook slightly. The cheering quieted down as the heroes looked up, feeling something was wrong. Moki flew up above the stadium, then swooped down to the press box, where Present Mic had rushed outside.

"I think it's an earthquake," she told him. "It doesn't seem big, but there's a bunch of broken windows all down the streets and the ponds are swaying."

"Thanks, little lady!" Present Mic turned back to the booth and picked up the microphone as Moki flew back to her class. "Nothing to worry about people," he shouted, "it was just a minor earthquake! Let's keep this Sports Festival going!"

The cheers returned as the final two students in the quarterfinals stepped out into the light. Akijaso walked onto the stage, smiling at the crowd. Toschi waved to the cheering spectators and raised his fists, beckoning Akijaso to come closer. The two grinned and readied themselves as Midnight brought down her whip. Toschi instantly pressed a combination of buttons as Akijaso bobbed side to side, prepared to dodge any attacks. Two yellow spikes shot into the ground, popping up on either side of Akijaso and wrapping around him. As he struggled, Toschi ran, fist raised. He tapped the side of Akijaso's head, freezing him, then delivered several punches to his frozen opponent. The glow disappeared, and Akijaso flew backwards, falling over the side of the stage just as the ground rumbled again, stronger than before. Midnight cracked her whip, ignoring it.

"Akijaso is out of bounds! Hatsume wins!" The crowd cheered, and Akijaso stood up, a defeated smile on his face. Toschi, on the other hand, was not smiling. He was still suspicious about the earthquake, and as a small aftershock ran up his legs, an alert popped up in his visor. He pressed a button on his chest, and a live video feed appeared in his vision. It was footage from a security camera by the ports, and as he watched, the tide in the harbor began rushing out, leaving the seafloor bare. His eyes widened and he ran to Midnight. "Midnight!" he called, grabbing her attention. "There's a tsunami approaching the coast! The heroes need to go help people!"

Akijaso heard him, and turned to the press booth, cupping his hands to his mouth. "Hatsume says there's a tsunami coming! The heroes need to go help!" As the crowd heard the news, hundreds of pro heroes got up and ran out of the stadium. Those that could fly took to the skies, heading east to the harbors. As nervous chatter spread through the stadium, Midnight turned to Toschi.

"That was a very noble thing you did, Hatsume," she told him. "Putting other people before your own desires, that is what makes a hero."

He looked at her, a determined fire in his eye. "I made myself a vow to help those that I can reach. I could help people, and I chose to put them in front of me. That is why I will become a hero; so that innocent people won't have to die."

Meanwhile, as the teachers stayed behind to ensure the students were safe, hundreds of heroes rushed to the ports. As they arrived, they could see a massive wall of water approaching from the distance. Dozens began evacuating the civilians, and those that could create and manipulate began forming large walls to block the surge of water. As they worked, a massive shockwave scattered the heroes, the ground quaking and rolling like ripples on a pond. From the air, flying heroes saw the tsunami increase in size, nearly double the height of the walls the heroes had built. The water barreled down on the coast, and the heroes tried to grab as many civilians as they could, but there was no way they could-

"DETROIT SMASH!" a deep voice yelled. A blue streak blasted over their heads and struck the tsunami. The water instantly exploded in the opposite direction, racing back over the ocean. The streak shot out and picked up a massive container ship, lifting it out of the path of the wave, then set it back down. All Might landed on the dock, his usual grin present. "It's fine now," he said, eyes glimmering. "I am here!" The citizens cheered, thanking him for saving their lives. As he responded to his fans, something caught his ear. He held out a hand to shush the crowd and looked into the air, scowling. Suddenly, he leapt into the air, soaring over the city. He landed in the stadium, still packed with people. As they gasped in shock at his arrival, they felt the ground begin to rumble, and a massive gash opened in the earth. The stadium trembled and creaked as it began to split in half, and the crowd screamed. All Might turned to the students. "Young heroes!" he called, "this is your moment to shine! Do your duty, and help these people evacuate!"

As All Might leapt into the crowd, the students looked at each other and sprang into action. Omakase scuttled along the wall and began stringing webs in the cracks, trying to hold the stadium together. Shikora made a large ramp out of paper and she, Moki, Katakana, and Murasashe started directing people to the emergency slide and other escapes. Sasaki leapt down from the stands, crashing into the ground below, and puffed out his cheeks. A massive wave of lava burst forth, and he began trying to fill in the massive gash in the earth. As the lava cooled, it melded to the walls of the gaping chasm and held fast. The ground shook, fighting the resistance, until the rock finally shattered, shockwaves snapping across the earth and shaking the stadium. People screamed, and as the crowds started to run out of the stadium, a rushing sound brought the heroes' attention to the sky.

Their jaws dropped as they saw dozens of meteors raining down on them. All Might shot into the air, smashing through the asteroids left and right, but they continued to come. From the air, he could see that they were everywhere, smashing into the city. A lone figure stood in the middle of all of the carnage, hands. All Might shot after it, fearing it might be a civilian in danger, and Toschi ran up to Moki.

"I need you to take me where All Might is going!" he yelled, and Moki stared at him in horror.  
"Why? What's happening?" she asked. Toschi held out his wrist, and a hologram appeared. It showed a man with glowing hands standing in the middle of the destruction, grinning maniacally.

"I think this guy's causing all of this damage!" Toschi said. "I need to tell All Might!" Moki looked back at her friends, worried, but Netsuke waved her off.

"Go!" she said, "If All Might finds that guy, then all of this destruction will end!" Moki sighed, then grabbed Toschi in her claws and flew into the air. She hovered above the stadium, eyes dashing around, until she saw All Might, two miles away. She took off after him, flapping her wings harder and harder, until she had caught up to the hero.

"All Might!" Toschi screamed, and All Might looked over, surprised. "That guy's causing all of the damage! You need to stop him!" All Might glanced at the hologram, then gave a thumbs up, grinning.

"Fear not, young hero! I shall take this villain to a swift-" He suddenly grabbed Moki, pulling her down as a meteor rushed past, exactly where she had been flying just moments before. The three hurtled towards the ground, and All Might pulled the two students to his chest, rotating so that he was between them and the ground. He landed, legs digging into the ground as he heard a psychotic laugh. He turned, glaring at the villain, who was sauntering towards them, hands raised. He had dirty, matted grey hair and dark purple eyes, and seemed nearly as muscular as All Might. He was equipped with black and red body armor, and All Might could see two pistols on his waist.

"Who do we have here," the villain said to himself, "two kids, and All Might himself? This is great! Not only will I kill the symbol of peace, I can get a bit of warmup in by killing those brats!" He placed his hand on the ground, and it shook, a chasm splitting the earth under All Might as he leapt away. He set the two students down, then turned and sprinted towards the villain. A massive wall of magma leapt up in his face, causing him to screech to a halt. The villain laughed, floating on top of a slab of stone on top of the lava. Moki and Toschi looked at each other, terrified, and Toschi gave her a nod. Her gaze hardened, and she clipped on her beak shroud and pulled out a different set of talon covers. Whereas the other ones were more like steel blades, these were jagged and black. She took off, circling behind the distracted villain as he launched a meteor at All Might. He braced his arms, but Toschi leapt in front, freezing the boulder. He punched it a few times, then the glow faded, the boulder shooting back at the villain, narrowly missing him. As he turned his head to look at the rock that nearly killed him, a glint of metal caught his eye as Moki's reinforced talons raked across his armor. He yelled as the jagged blades sliced through his armor and scored his chest, only to be knocked down by Moki's wing slamming into his neck. He landed on the ground and saw All Might raising a fist, then snarled and his hands grew brighter. A strong wind picked up, sending the heroes flying. As All Might stood up, the villain held his hands in the air, glowing even brighter.

"I will kill you, All Might," he grunted, "Kill you! The world will know the name of the one who ended the Symbol of Peace! The world will know of Cataclysm!" He flung his hands down, and an orange glow in the sky caught All Might's eye. It looked like there was a second moon, but it was growing, glowing orange as it hurtled towards the Earth. As the planet-sized meteor raced closer, All Might braced himself, preparing to leap at it, and Toschi saw a hint of fear in his eyes.

"If that asteroid strikes us, it'll annihilate the city!" All Might said. "At that size, it could kill everyone on Earth!"

Inside Toschi, a small spark caught, quickly growing into a conflagration of pure power. He raised his arms, eyes glowing yellow. The meteor grew closer, filling the sky, then when it was only a few hundred feet above the ground, he yelled, and a blinding yellow light filled the city.

At the stadium, the students saw the flash and rushed outside to see what had happened. They gasped at the planet filling the sky, glowing yellow. It was completely frozen. Their jaws dropped as they recognized the glow as Toschi's Quirk. "No way…" Omakase muttered, running his hand through his hair.

The planet hovered just feet above them. Cataclysm and Moki were absolutely dumbfounded, and Toschi collapsed to one knee, sweating profusely. All Might leapt into the air and sent a flurry of punches at the meteor, hitting it over a hundred times in less than three seconds. Toschi's eyes drooped shut, and he collapsed, exhausted. The yellow light shattered, and the meteor blasted off into the sky, a massive shockwave racing across the land from the sheer acceleration of it. It flew off, disappearing into the sunlight as the sky cleared up. All Might set his sights on Cataclysm, who was still staring at where the meteor used to be. Cataclysm brought his eyes down to Toschi, who was unconscious, then raised them as a massive fist slammed into his face.

In the week after Cataclysm's attack, the city began to recover. Along with the pro heroes, the U.A. students helped with fixing the damage. Cementoss and Sasaki helped to fill in the deep rifts caused by the earthquakes, and Takeyama, in her giant form, and Kushiro helped move and break large pieces of rubble and debris. Students with tracking abilities, such as Omakase, Reikokuna, Moki, and Kaiza helped search for civilians trapped in collapsed buildings, while others worked on repairs. Shikora had discovered that she could make a kind of plaster mixed with paper, and she helped patch up broken walls, while Ayatsuru helped reduce flooding from broken water mains and pipes. Toschi had woken up a few days after he had stopped the meteor, and was busy rebuilding his strength. Freezing such a colossal object had taken an immense toll on his body, and he had exhausted a lot of his power. He needed to be ready for when the school resumed the Sports Festival.

A week and a half after the attack, the U.A. students were back in the stadium, ready to finish the Sports Festival. In order to extend the event longer than the three matches left, the school decided to hold various recreational activities while the fighters prepared themselves. After two hours of fun and games, the arena was cleared while Cementoss built the stage. The speakers crackled to life.

"Are you ready for the first match of the semifinals?" Present Mic yelled. The crowd cheered. "The man of many beasts versus the fastest student we've ever seen, it's Jokan Reikokuna versus Moki Tsubasa!"

The crowd roared as they entered the arena, waving. Reikokuna respectfully bowed to his opponent, who laughed. Midnight stepped up to the judge's platform and held out her whip.

"The first match of the semifinal, Reikokuna versus Tsubasa, is about to begin!" she called. "Contestants, on my mark." She raised the whip into the air, the two students tensing up. The whip cracked down. "Begin!"

Moki shot into the air like a bullet while Reikokuna got down on all fours. His form grew, thick fur sprouting out all around his body, and he roared as he transformed into a massive tiger. Moki swooped down towards him, steel claws flashing, and Reikokuna leapt. He swatted her out of the air, slamming her down onto the ground. She quickly rolled out of the way as his massive claws tore through the cement, right where her head had been. She kicked up, and her claws raked across his belly. He roared in pain, his eyes flaming as his attacks tripled in speed. Moki got out from under him and took to the skies, panting. Reikokuna changed into a massive eagle and leapt after her, drops of blood splashing onto the ground. The two circled each other, clicking their talons as they stared each other down.

Reikokuna dove towards her, and she flapped out of his way. Before she could react, a powerful hand grabbed her leg. He had transformed into a gorilla, and was now pulling her down as he fell to the earth. He pushed her in front of him as they streaked down, aiming to slam her into the ground. She frantically began slashing at his arms, but he roared through the pain and held on tight. As they approached the ground, he transformed again, a few feet before impact. Moki slammed into the ground, a massive cloud of dust shooting into the air. The crowd grew silent in suspense, trying to see through the veil. Midnight coughed, fanning away the dust as she approached the crater. Looking down, she saw Moki lying unconscious, a mouse sitting on her chest. It hopped off of her, and Reikokuna grew into a human.

The whip snapped. "Tsubasa is unconscious! Reikokuna wins!" The crowd cheered as Reikokuna bowed down. The medical robots came out, and he lifted Moki onto the stretcher. As they departed for Recovery Girl's office, Reikokuna left to return to the waiting room as Cementoss repaired the stage.

"The first finalist has been determined!" Present Mic announced. "Jokan Reikokuna advances to the final round! Now, the next two semifinalists! It's one of the physically strongest students in the class against the hero who saved the city! It's Yakuna Sasaki versus Toschi Hatsume!" The crowd exploded as the two stars of the festival walked onto the stage. Sasaki had gained recognition for not only his incredible brute strength, but also for his incredibly versatile and powerful Quirk. Toschi had been labeled a hero for his part in defeating Cataclysm, and his Quirk was nearly impossible to fight against. Many of their classmates believed this fight would be the best one yet.

"Contestants, ready!" Midnight called, then cracked her whip. "Fight!" Sasaki shot a river of lava at the center of the stage, and it quickly cooled into a massive three-foot-thick wall, stretching almost eleven feet in the air. He grinned, then his expression turned to surprise as the wall flashed yellow. He heard a rapid thudding sound, then the wall exploded, gravel spraying all over him as he shielded his face. Through his fingers, he saw Toschi sprinting towards him, pressing a button on his chest. His suit glowed, and a mass of glowing nanobots formed around his fist as he reared back, then a burst of flame from a rocket motor on his elbow sprouted forth and his reinforced fist slammed into Sasaki's nose. A massive cloud of dust, stirred up by the shockwave of the hit, shot into the sky, and the crowd roared. As the smoke settled, their classmates watched closely, eagerly waiting for one of them to emerge. The dust cleared, and the stadium gasped.

Toschi's reinforced fist was caught in Sasaki's massive hand, cracks spidering through the metal. Sasaki grinned at Toschi's stunned face and swung, slamming his left fist into Toschi's nose. He struck Toschi on the side of the nose, his knuckle getting caught between the bridge of his nose and his orbital socket. Toschi rocketed back from the force of the punch, smashing into the ground near the edge of the stage. His head spun as he tried to roll over. His nose was shattered, and his right eye was swollen shut. He grimaced in pain, clambering up onto his knees. Sasaki watched him in shock; not only had Toschi survived one of the hardest punches ever thrown in the Sports Festival, but he was trying to stand up. Toschi panted, blood streaming from his nose. Sasaki charged, fist flying, and Toschi's clubbed fist vanished. On his other arm, a shield materialized, and he jammed the bottom of it into the ground. Sasaki's fist collided with the shield, echoing like a gong on New Year's. Toschi held firm, grunting as he felt the tremor run through his bones. Sasaki swung his other fist, but froze, glowing yellow; Toschi's free hand was on his chest. Toschi slipped around him and clubs formed over his fists. He swung them into the back of Sasaki's head, just as the glow disappeared. Sasaki barely moved, but he fell to his knees, eyes rolling back in his head as he slumped to the ground.

The whip cracked. "Sasaki retires due to losing consciousness!" Midnight yelled. "Hatsume wins!" The crowd exploded, cheering and whistling. Toschi fell to one knee, holding his nose as the medical robots came out. They managed to lift Sasaki onto the stretcher (with some difficulty; he was over 400 pounds of rock and muscle), and Toschi sat on the other end of it as the robots carted the two away to Recovery Girl. Cementoss began repairing the stage, and Present Mic's voice crackled through the loudspeakers.

"What an incredible match!" he yelled, the crowd cheering harder. "Toschi Hatsume moves on to the finals! Stick around, we'll wait a few minutes for Recovery Girl to do her thing, and then we will hold the third-place match between Moki Tsubasa and Yakuna Sasaki! After those two students battle for a respectable third place, Jokan Reikokuna and Toschi Hatsume will duke it out in an intense, death-defying battle for the grand prize!"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Whew! Another 4,500 word chapter down the hole! I hope you all didn't mind Moki and Toschi's hero debuts, I was wondering how to incorporate Cataclysm into the story and I feel like it was kinda rushed, like he wasn't as strong as I was intending for him to be. Don't worry, he'll be back someday ;). The championship round should be out in the next few days, so stick around if you enjoy the story!**


	6. Chapter 5: Sports Festival: Finale

Chapter 5: The Sports Festival: Finale

The crowd's cheering was muffled in Recovery Girl's office. Sasaki was sitting down on a cot, staring at the ceiling. He looked over to Toschi, who was standing by the window, observing the crowd opposite them. "I'm sorry about that punch, Hatsume," he said, looking down at his feet. "If I knew it was going to do that to you, I wouldn't have done it, it's just…" Toschi turned his head to his friend, smiling. Recovery Girl had healed him, but his nose was crooked, and a scar ran down from the bottom of his right eyelid to his nostril.

"It's fine, really," he said, chuckling at Sasaki's guilty expression. "We were fighting; I'd be more upset if you held back. That would _really_make me feel weak." He laughed. "More than that punch I tried did!"

Sasaki laughed along, remembering Toschi trying to knock him out. "I honestly thought you were trying to tickle me!" The two laughed even harder, Sasaki's deep, rolling laugh causing the window to tremble.

"If you two boys are finished," a sultry voice said, "Sasaki is up for a fight." Midnight stood at the doorway, smirking at the two. Toschi wished Sasaki luck, and left for the stands to sit with his classmates. He sat down next to Kushiro and Watanabe, who fixed his creepy gaze on Toschi.

"Are you nervous to fight Reikokuna?" he asked his classmate. Toschi shook his head, eyes unwavering from the stage.

"There is no such thing as getting nervous when it comes to fighting Reikokuna," he said. "If you get nervous, you've already lost. Reikokuna is one of the strongest students in our class, but he is also one of the most over-focused. He tends to take in everything he can all the time, and any emotions you show him he can use to his advantage. His observational skills are unparalleled; if you show a single hint of hesitation, he will know that you believe you will not win easily. Although, he can also tell when someone is overconfident. The best way to match him is to be as calm and reserved as he is." Watanabe nodded, not understanding anything Toschi had said. Down on the stage, Moki and Sasaki were facing each other, eyeing up their opponent.

Even though Moki was a full two feet shorter than Sasaki, she looked just as menacing with her brutally sharp claws and beak, and her yellow eyes, narrowed into thin slits. Her talons drummed on the concrete floor, and they dug in like she was standing on paper. Sasaki cracked his neck and blew a smoke ring at Moki, who coughed, trying to fan it away. "Brush your teeth Sasaki!" she said, trying not to laugh. He merely grinned and slid his foot back, raising his fists to his waist. Midnight looked at the two, amused.

"Anxious to start, are we?" she mused, raising her whip. "Begin!" Sasaki blasted a curtain of lava into the air, the thin, bubbly mixture rapidly cooling into a large sheet of pumice. He then sprayed more lava onto the ground, the molten rock creating a boiling updraft that suspended the pumice formation in the air. Moki was between a rock and a very, very hot place that would cook her like a rotisserie chicken if she wasn't careful. She flapped her wings, hovering in the air. _I can't slice through that pumice,_she thought, _it would dull my talon sheaths in a heartbeat. So I'm stuck down by his level, and I can't approach him because of the heat. Think Moki, think!_

Sasaki, oblivious to her mental dilemma, was confused. _Why isn't she doing anything? I thought she would have tried to cut through the pumice by now, did she predict that?_She circled the arena, eyes darting around, searching for an opening. She saw a patch of cooled rock floating on top of the lake of lave he had created, and her eyes lit up. She began fanning her wings rapidly, blowing a powerful stream of cool air across the bubbling magma. The surface began to cool and crust over, and the pumice started to fall from the sky, tilting down. She dove low and swooped around to the collapsing section, getting above the mass of rock as it plummeted down towards Sasaki. He threw his fist up and the pumice shattered, tiny shards of rock blasting into the sky. Moki squawked and frantically tried to evade, but screamed as a burst of pumice struck her leg like a shotgun blast. Sasaki saw this, and spouted another block of pumice into the air. He punched it as it came down, and another blast of rock shot towards her. She dodged it, and her eyes filled with rage. She streaked down, raking her talons across Sasaki's arms. He yelled in agony as blood splashed across the stage.

Midnight tried to step in, but Moki was too fast. Her beak slashed across Sasaki's chest as she swooped past again, and she slammed her wing into his neck. He fell to one knee, eyes blazing. His cheeks swelled, and a massive tidal wave of magma flooded the arena. He stomped his foot down, splattering lava all around him. A drop splashed onto Moki's wing as she flew past and she screamed, swinging around and blowing a powerful gust of air across the lava lake, crusting it over. She landed, panting, holding her left wing. The lava had burned a hole through it, and she winced as she felt her bones shift. She dashed towards him, claws digging into the rock, and Sasaki charged, fists raised. A purple haze filled their visions, and they both collapsed, snoring. Midnight was standing in between them, sleeves ripped off.

"Enough!" she screamed, panting. She had a shocked, nervous expression on her face. The crowd had been silent throughout the fight, stunned. Nobody thought that they would go so far, right? It was only third place, after all. There was no need to get so violent, was there?

The speakers crackled to life. "Well, that was, uh, extreme," Present Mic's voice said. "That may have been the most vicious fight I've ever seen at the Sports Festival. Yikes. Well, as we tend to the competitors and clear off the stage, let's get ready for the championship!" The crowd cheered, remembering the final fight was yet to come. "After this fight, Tsubasa and Sasaki will have a short tiebreaker to determine third place, and then we'll have the awards ceremony! Now, it's time for the penultimate matchup! The man of many forms, he's as strong as a gorilla, as fast as a cheetah, as slippery as a snake, it's Jokan Reikokuna!" The crowd roared as he entered the arena, bowing politely to the fans. "And now, the hero of the city, one of the most capable students in Class 1-B, master of one of the most formidable Quirks any U.A. student has ever had, it's Toschi Hatsume!" He entered the arena to the sound of thousands of people cheering and applauding, smiling. He waved to the crowd, seeing his friends and family cheering for him. He stepped onto the stage and nodded to Reikokuna. He bowed back, and squinted.

"You seem rather confident, Hatsume," he said. "Is this arrogance I sense?"

"No," Toschi responded, "It's respect. We've both come so far, but in the end, only one of us is walking away from here."

"That is true, my friend," Reikokuna said, flexing his arms, "and I am sorry, but I do not intend on losing this match." As Midnight raised her whip, he grinned. "May the best man win." Midnight cracked her whip, and Reikokuna began to grow. His skin became dark green, and scales sprouted all across his body. He kept growing larger and larger, rivaling Takeyama's full size, and his fingers sprouted massive, five-foot-long claws. His immense bulk caused the stage to crack under him, and he roared as a burst of flame erupted from his mouth. The colossal dragon loomed over Toschi, a murderous look in its eye. Reikokuna raised one foot in the air and slammed it down, narrowly avoiding Toschi. He ducked to the side, frantically pressing buttons on his chest. A few sparks flew out; he had forgotten to repair his suit after his fight with Sasaki. The foot came rushing down again, and he smacked his chest piece. A yellow glow surrounded him, and Reikokuna's foot bounced off of the force field being projected from Toschi's back. He growled and smashed his foot down again, to the same result. The shield held strong, and Toschi feverishly tapped away at his buttons. The shield rapidly expanded, pushing on Reikokuna. He stumbled, but his massive claws dug into the ground and held firm. He pressed against the shield, roaring, and Toschi tapped his chest. The shield vanished and he darted forwards, rolling under Reikokuna's feet as he lost his balance. The dragon stumbled forwards, righting himself with a flap of his massive wings.

He turned, smoke trailing from his eyes, and opened his gaping mouth, an orange glow rising in his throat. Toschi's suit curled up around him in a cocoon as a massive burst of flame washed over him. Reikokuna spun around and slammed his tail into the cocoon, launching it away towards the edge of the stage. It unfurled and Toschi dug his glove into the ground, sliding to a halt as Reikokuna bared down upon him. He ducked under a gargantuan claw aimed at his head and darted under his legs. _Just need to hold him off for a few more moments…_he thought, checking a power gauge on his wrist. It was at 92%, and in its reflection, he saw a massive foot hurtling down. He jumped to the side, diving between the massive toes of Reikokuna as the dragon kicked, stabilizing himself with his wings. Toschi's power gauge blinked yellow, and he jumped onto Reikokuna's leg, scaling the massive beast. Reikokuna tried to swat him away, but he clambered up all the way to the top of his head. Reikokuna snarled and shot into the air, the ground fading away below them. Toschi raised his hands into the air as his eyes began to glow. _Now that I learned I can freeze things from a distance…_he thought, searching for an opening.

Suddenly, Reikokuna shook his head, flinging Toschi into the air. He looked down and saw the leviathan barreling towards him, mouth open. Toschi grinned, and the sky lit up yellow. The crowd shielded their eyes from the glow, and heard a loud crash. Toschi was on top of Reikokuna, who was frozen in the air. He rained punches down on his opponent, building up energy. Breathing heavily, he leapt into the air as the yellow glow surrounding Reikokuna vanished, and the massive dragon careened towards earth. Toschi pressed a button, and a parachute popped out of his back. Reikokuna tried to change form, but he was too fatigued from holding his Leviathan form for so long, and he morphed back into a human as he passed out. He smashed into the ground, shuddering the stage as cracks shot across the cement. Toschi landed, the parachute furling up into his suit. He collapsed to one knee, sweating. Reikokuna wasn't as massive as the asteroid was, but he was still a titanic beast, and it had taken a lot of energy to hold him still for long enough. Midnight peered down into the crater, and jumped back as a hand grasped the edge. The crowd gasped as Reikokuna pulled himself out of the crack, panting.

Blood dripped from a gash on his forehead, and his right arm was bloody and dark purple, and was hanging at a weird angle. He limped towards Toschi, who was unsteadily standing up. Reikokuna stood in front of him, eyes locked as the two fighters wheezed. Toschi raised his fists, and beckoned Reikokuna. The normally calm and polite beast was at his wits end, and being taunted sent him over the edge. He transformed into a starfish, confusing Toschi and the crowd, until he tore off one of his own legs. _I see_, Toschi thought, _starfish can regenerate limbs_. The leg quickly grew back, and he transformed again. A powerful fist slammed into the ground, and the seven-foot gorilla roared, broken arm healed. Toschi threw up a metal shield, but Reikokuna punched it hard, denting it. Toschi felt something crack in his hand, and he recoiled as Reikokuna swung again, bellowing.

Toschi was on the defensive, dodging attacks left and right as Reikokuna swung his fists wildly, hitting strong enough to break bones. He pressed a button on his chest, and a small rectangle popped up on his right arm. He aimed, and two barbed metal wires shot out, sticking into Reikokuna's chest. Over 50,000 volts of electricity arced through Reikokuna, hitting him like a freight train. He roared in pain, and Toschi slipped around behind him. He froze Reikokuna and formed clubs over his fists. He swung them into Reikokuna's back, and unfroze him. He stumbled forwards, nearly falling over the line, but caught himself and turned, launching himself at Toschi. Reikokuna smashed his fist into Toschi's temple, knocking him back to the opposite side of the stage. He bellowed, fists raised in the air as the crowd cheered.

Toschi struggled to get up, head fuzzy. Everything was blurry and sounded muffled. He rolled over onto his back, gritting his teeth in pain. He felt himself get lifted into the air, then slam back down, his head smashing into the concrete. Reikokuna grabbed him by the collar, raising him in the air like a trophy. As he started to walk to the edge of the stage to throw him off, Toschi thrashed about, trying to free himself from Reikokuna's insane grip. As his vision started to fade out, he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"Toschi! You can win!" Mei screamed from the stands. Toschi's eyes focused into the stands, and saw his little cousin watching him with a smile on her face. "Win this for me Toschi!" His eyes flashed yellow, and Reikokuna looked down, confused. Toschi's hand grasped his fingers, and as Reikokuna watched in shock, Toschi slowly pried his massive gorilla fingers off of him. He landed on the ground and spun, freezing Reikokuna as he delivered a brutal kick to his kidney. He unfroze him and Reikokuna roared in pain, only to have Toschi's metal-clubbed fist slammed into his nose. His head hit the ground hard, and Toschi swung his foot up in the air, bringing it down in a powerful axe kick to Reikokuna's neck. He roared and rolled away, clambering to his feet, holding his throat. He looked at Toschi, and he saw nervousness in Reikokuna's eyes. Toschi dug his heels into the ground as Reikokuna charged, then spun. His glove formed into a rocket and fired as he slammed his elbow into Reikokuna's head, knocking him aside. He followed through, burying his foot into Reikokuna's side and vaulting over him as he swung in agonized rage. Reikokuna turned, only to see Toschi in the air above him, fist reared back, hand outstretched.

"Sorry, Reikokuna," he said as he froze him, "but I've got a Festival to win." He slammed his reinforced glove into Reikokuna's frozen face, aided by a rocket on his elbow. When he unfroze Reikokuna, he disappeared under the massive cloud of debris that covered the stage as Reikokuna flew back, tearing a chasm in the stage. The crowd watched anxiously for a sign of life, then roared as they saw Toschi standing victorious, fist raised in the air. Reikokuna was human again, and was unconscious at the bottom of a huge crater that spanned the entire stage.

"What a match!" Present Mic yelled. "Toschi Hatsume defeats Jokan Reikokuna in an explosive battle! Toschi Hatsume is this year's Festival Champion!" As Reikokuna slowly came to, Toschi fell to one knee, panting. He sat back, face upturned to the sky, letting the breeze wash over him. Cementoss helped him and Reikokuna to Recovery Girl's office to recover as Sasaki and Moki came out to settle their draw. Midnight decided to choose the victor by a staring contest, which Sasaki protested. It is impossible to argue with Midnight, so the staring contest began.

Sasaki held out for a few minutes, eyes watering, until he finally gave in. Moki rarely blinked anyway; as a falcon, she was used to keeping her eyes focused on things for long periods of time. The crowd cheered as Moki advanced to third place, and they brought the three winners to a pedestal. Nezu awarded Moki a bronze medal, which she hugged and proudly displayed for her family, saying she liked it because it matched her feathers. Reikokuna got a silver medal, and received it with a bow and a polite nod to the cheering crowd. When Toschi received his gold Champion's medal, the crowd roared. He only heard one voice though; Mei was screaming at the top of her little lungs, cheering for her cousin. His victory was not an easy one; of all his fights, the one against Sasaki was the hardest for him, as that was the only fight where he genuinely felt he would lose. Sasaki's brute strength and dangerous Quirk were more than a match for any pro hero, and going up against him when your Quirk isn't a strength enhancer type is downright suicide. Toschi felt as though Sasaki was holding back during their fight; he had seen him shatter rock like it was a lightbulb, but he only managed to break his nose when Sasaki punched him. _If he used his full strength in a fight_, Toschi thought as he waved to the crowd, _I might not have survived. Criminals had better watch out when he makes his debut_.

* * *

The class after the Sports Festival was a time of laughter and fun, students congratulating the winners and joking about the earlier matches. Midnight entered the room, and the noise gradually quieted down. "Good morning, class," she said, "First things first, a few announcements from Principal Nezu. It has been determined that students in the hero course have an unfair advantage in the Sports Festival; your costumes. So next year, all students will be required to wear their gym clothes. Any support items will have to go through an application process." She fixed her gaze on Moki and Toschi. "You two especially. Tsubasa, I think you can agree that your talon sheaths are a bit excessive for a school contest;" Moki nodded, head down; "and Hatsume, that suit of yours gave you a total advantage over nearly everyone. I understand that it helps, but the Sports Festival is a test of personal strength and strategy, not how strong out support items are. Understand?" He nodded, and she sighed.

"Anyway, today we are going to have you prepare for an important time in your hero careers: internships. Many of you have received offers from various heroes and agencies, but don't worry if you didn't receive any; there is a list of 40 hero agencies that will be accepting internship applications from you all. But first, you need hero names." The class cheered, and Midnight passed out slates and markers. "Write down what you want your hero name to be, and present it to the class. Remember, choose a name that represents how you want to be seen in the future. Many heroes end up using the names they chose in high school when they become pros, so choose wisely." The class spent a few minutes thinking and writing, and Omakase stood up first. He came to the front of the class and held out his slate.

"Orbweaver," he said, and Midnight nodded.

"That's a species of spider, correct?" she asked. "Very good, it goes with your Quirk and it sounds cool! I like it!" Reikokuna stood up next and faced the class.

"The Beast Hero: Beorn," he said, holding out his slate.

Midnight smiled. "Ah, that is the beast man from Lord of The Rings, right? Very good!" Hake stood up, his hands jittering as usual.

"The Caffeinated Hero: Coffeeman!" he announced.

"Sounds great!" Midnight said. "It's catchy, and it matches your Quirk!" Kalantari was next up.

"Sultan," he said in his deep, Middle Eastern accent.

"Oooh, sounds fancy!" Midnight said, clasping her hands together. "I like it! Next!" Kaiza stood up, skipping to the front of the room.

"The Electronic Hero: Hijack!" she said, beaming.

Midnight clapped. "That sounds cool! That's a great name to have!" Kaiza sat down, grinning, and Kushiro went up next.

"The Mining Hero: Jackhammer," she said as Midnight nodded.

"It fits with your fighting style," she said. "Sounds good!" Kimura went up next.

He cleared his throat. "Flashburn," he said. Midnight pondered this for a second.

"That doesn't seem so bad," she said, "it could work. Next person?" The next to go up was Sasaki, and he squeezed his way to the front of the room and held out his slate, dwarfed by his hand.

"The Molten Hero: Drakan!" he proudly announced. The class _ooh_'ed at his name.

"That's great!" Midnight said, placing her hand on his shoulder. "It sounds really tough and intimidating! It matches your image!" He smiled and squeezed his way back down the row as Kurami stood up. He placed his board on the desk, avoiding eye contact. "Cricketone?" Midnight asked. "It's not a bad name, it just sounds a little off, perhaps? It works though." He grumbled and sat back down, rolling his eyes.

"Me next!" Moki exclaimed, hopping up and skipping to the front of the room. She proudly held out her slate. "Moki-Chan!"

"Just your name?" Midnight asked.

"Yeah!" Moki responded. "I want people to think I'm cute!"

Kimura leaned back to Akijaso. "Yeah, she's cute until you remember she's a bird," he whispered, and Akijaso snickered. A loud scraping sound made Kimura jump, and he turned around to see Moki perched on his desk, talons scraping down the top, eyes full of fury. "W-which isn't a bad thing!" he stammered. Moki glared at him for a few moments, then reached out one razor sharp claw and sliced his tie off, holding it out in front of him. He gulped, and she turned around, smiling, and skipped back to her desk as if nothing had happened. Shikora stood up and walked to the front, wary of her temperamental friend.

"The Origami Hero: Papercut," she said, and Midnight clapped her hands together.

"It sounds fun, yet tough at the same time!" she said. "It's great!" The next batch of students went up to present their names. Seishin chose Phantom, a fitting name for her Possession Quirk. Akijaso's name was Mirrorman, suiting his Quirk, and Netsuke wanted her name to be Blackout. Watanabe's name was Duster, Ayatsuru chose Wavedash, Shizuka selected Rebound, and Umakire chose Shockwave. Mutsuhito selected the name Recoil, and Shinsi simply chose his first name, Nagano. Finally, it was Toschi's turn. He took a deep breath before showing his name to the class.

"This is my name," he said, holding out his slate. The thick characters stood out against the white board, seemingly cut into it with a blade.

_KINETICA_

Midnight clapped her hands as the class murmured in interest. "That's excellent, Hatsume!" she said. "A perfect name!" As he went back to his desk, Midnight picked up a stack of papers and began passing them out. "I'm giving out lists of the hero agencies that will be accepting U.A. students as interns next week. Those of you who got internship offers, you will receive a list of those as well. Be sure to hand in your choices by the end of the week." As she left the room, the class split into their various groups.

Usually, when left to their own devices, the many friends in the class split into different groups. The "gossip squad", as described by the rest of the class, consisted of Moki, Shikora, Takeyama, and Kaiza. The four of them, while friendly to everyone, were very prone to gossiping and had the apparent inability to keep any sort of secret or to stay out of other peoples' business. Toschi, Omakase, Netsuke, and Sasaki usually hung out together, and would meet up on the weekends to have fun sometimes. Mutsuhito, Kushiro, Ayatsuru, and Hake would hang out sometimes, and occasionally Kurami would join them. Reikokuna, Seishin, Shinsi, Umakire, and Akijaso tended to eat together at lunch, and Umakire and Akijaso lived in the same neighborhood, so they walked to and from school together. Shizuka, Kimura, Watanabe, and Kalantari made up the final group; Kalantari had a hard time fitting in with his classmates as a foreigner, and those three were the first people to greet him and make him feel included.

Moki leaned over to Sasaki. "Did you get any offers?" she asked, peering over his shoulder. He stroked his chin, thinking.

"I did," he said, "but I don't know about any of them. None of them seem like they'd give me any real experience, they just seem like community service opportunities. I think I'm going to go to Fourth Kind's agency." Moki nodded, leaning on his back and holding her paper in front of him.

"Yeah, I got a few like that too," she sighed. "Takeyama and I both got offers from Uwabami, but I don't wanna do that." She looked over her shoulder in annoyance. "Takeyama practically screamed when she got that offer."

"Why wouldn't I?" Takeyama asked, exasperated. "Why would you turn down a chance to work with a hero like her?"

"She's a supermodel!" Moki yelled back, hopping off of Sasaki. "You're just going to end up being part of her entourage or something! She doesn't do anything!"

"Well,_excuse _me, chicken wings," Takeyama retorted, "If you had been blessed with a body like mine, you'd want to learn how to strut your stuff like her!" Moki growled, turning away from her and climbing onto Sasaki's back.

"Bitch," she muttered, drawing laughs from Toschi and Omakase. Moki was easily the shortest girl in the class, and as a bird, she was very skinny. Her female friends liked to poke fun at her small chest, which she was insecure about. Even Ayatsuru, who was skinnier that Moki was, liked to join in with the teasing. "I'm gonna go work with Edgeshot," she said, waving her paper in Sasaki's face. "He's only been a pro for a year, but he's already the number five hero! I wanna be like that!" Sasaki looked over his shoulder at the excited bird.

"You just want to work with him because you think he's a pretty boy, tight?" he asked her. She glared at her friend, then laid her head down on his shoulder, pouting as he laughed. He looked to Toschi. "Hey Hatsume, who are you going to work with?" He looked down at his list of offers, sighing.

"I don't know," he said, "there's so many offers I got, I don't know which one to-" He froze, and his eyes went wider than Sasaki's palms. "A-A-All…" he stammered, shoving his paper in Omakase's face. He looked down at one of the names, and gasped.

"You got an offer from All Might?" he said, louder than intended. The classroom went silent as nineteen sets of shocked eyes turned to Toschi, who was still frozen. Reikokuna spoke up.

"I believe I heard an upperclassman say that the winners from the second and third years also received offers from All Might. I suspect that All Might saw potential in you, Hatsume, and he reached out to you. If I were you, I would take advantage of this." Slowly, the class chatter began to return to normal, and across the room, several other conversations began.

"Reikokuna," Seishin said, turning to her large friend, "where are you going to go? I'm thinking about going to Gunhead's agency to work on my actual combat skills." He finished writing on his paper, then looked up.

"I plan to take up an offer from the Underwater Hero: Sub Nautica. He stated in his offer that he likes my Transform ability, and that it could be very helpful in his work." Across the room, Kalantari and Shizuka were discussing their options.

"I honestly don't know," Shizuka groaned, laying her head on the desk. "There's too many to choose from."

"Well, I'm going back home for my internship," Kalantari said, "I could see if you would want to come." She perked her head up.

"Really? Where?"

"Well, my father is one of the best heroes in Kuwait, and he offered for me to work at his agency." He handed her a card, and she gasped as she saw the name on it. "It's not that big of a deal though, if you don't want to then it's perfectly alright."

"Your dad is Hell's Child?!" she exclaimed, startling him. "He's one of the best heroes in the world! Of course I'd want to go work with him!"

"Excellent!" Kalantari said, grinning. "I shall send notice to my family to make preparations." As he pulled out his phone, the bell rang, and the students got up for lunch. As he left the room, Toschi felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw a tall, curvy girl standing beside him. Her red-orange hair seemingly floated on an invisible breeze, and she flashed him a smirk.

"You're the first-year winner, right?" she asked. Seeing his nervous nod, she began to walk, dragging him with her. "I'm the winner of the third year Sports Festival, Nebuki Ayabuska. I've heard a lot about you, Toschi Hatsume." Her grip tightened on his shoulder, making him gulp. "They say you helped All Might defeat a villain? At just sixteen? Even though none of the rest of us have ever gotten any real combat experience, a little kid like you got to work with the greatest hero of all time, seemingly on a whim?"

She stopped and turned him to face her. He was expecting her to be upset at him, but her smile seemed genuine. "But when I saw that asteroid stop in mid-air, and I saw the hero that saved the city, I thought to myself, 'That's a true hero right there. He didn't care about whether he would live or die, all that mattered to him was trying to save everyone he could.' You know, they say the best heroes are the ones that act before they think. You are one of those heroes." She held out her hand. "Welcome to the big league, kid."

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Holy shit, that was a long chapter (5,300 words!). I tried to use this to introduce the four main protagonists in this story: Moki Tsubasa, Yakuna Sasaki, Jokan Reikokuna, and, of course, Toschi Hatsume. The next four chapters will focus on each student in their internships with heroes. The only original hero I will introduce is Sub Nautica, and I think you'll like what I have planned for him and Reikokuna. All four of these characters will have their own villain to fight, and I'll show a sneak peek at each person's home life at the end of each chapter. I'm most excited for Reikokuna and Moki's chapters. Enjoy!**


	7. Chapter 6: Internships: Drakan

Chapter 6: Internships: Drakan

A week had passed, and the students stood at the train station, saying their goodbyes to each other as they left to their respective internships. Sasaki waved to his friends before stepping on board his train. Squeezing his way down the rows of seats, he found two that were unoccupied. He sat down and put in his earbuds, then plugged them in to his tablet. He had to use a tablet instead of a phone; his hands were too big to do anything on the tiny screens. He selected his favorite playlist as the train began to move, and closed his eyes, a smile crossing his face.

Two hours later, he stepped down onto the platform, stretching his back. He saw a dark-suited man holding a sign with his name on it, and walked over to him. The man noticed him approaching and extended a hand.

"Mr. Sasaki, I presume?" he asked. At Sasaki's confirmation, he turned and beckoned him to follow. "I'm with Fourth Kind. He asked me to escort you to his office. He would have been here, but he was unfortunately called off to duty. Something about a bank robbery. Anyways, when we arrive, get changed into your hero costume and wait for him to return. Feel free to look around his office if you want." After twenty minutes of walking, they arrived at a large office building in the middle of the city. After getting changed, Sasaki stepped into Fourth Kind's office, marveling at the number of books and sculptures. After about fifteen minutes of wandering around, he heard the door open behind him.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Sasaki," a gruff voice said. Sasaki turned to see a large, four-armed man walking to the large oak desk. He had a shaved head, and his jaw was rather square. "I'm Fourth Kind, and you'll be working with me for the next week." He held out his large hand, and Sasaki gripped it, both testing the other's grip strength. Fourth Kind grinned as he felt his knuckles crack under the immense strength of Sasaki. "Now then," he said, letting go and subtly rubbing his hand, "what shall I call you? I can't imagine you would go around as a hero asking people to call you Sasaki."

"I'm Drakan, sir," Sasaki responded, and Fourth Kind raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Interesting. Well, for the time being, I suppose I ought to see what you can do." Internally, Sasaki pumped his fist. Now was the time he could show off his strength! Fourth Kind turned in his chair and picked up a remote. He clicked a button on it, and the floor beneath them began descending. As Sasaki watched in awe, the floor descended down into a large underground space, about the size of a soccer field. He heard the chair creak behind him. "Now then…" Fourth Kind said, and Sasaki felt two massive fists connect with the back of his head. He stumbled a bit, then turned around.

Fourth Kind was eyeing him with interest, rubbing his knuckles. "Very tough, very tough indeed…" he muttered to himself. He swung again, and Sasaki caught one of his fists, but the other slammed into his gut. He sharply exhaled, and gritted his teeth. He clenched down, feeling Fourth Kind's fist weaken in his grasp. He yanked it towards him while slamming his fist forwards, connecting with Fourth Kind's jaw. The impact knocked the pro hero back, and he stumbled, shaking his head. He looked up just in time to see a massive elbow bury itself in his nose, snapping his head back. He fell to one knee, chuckling.

"I haven't had any intern that could ever knock me down before," he said, glancing up at Sasaki. "You've got quite the hit there, kid. The world needs strong men like you." He stood up, knees creaking. "Now, how well can you make tea?"

Four days later, Fourth Kind was in his office doing paperwork when he heard a knock on the door. "Come on in," he called, and Sasaki entered the room, carrying a tray of tea. "Ah, Drakan, there you are. Say," he said as Sasaki set the tray down on his desk, "did you read that story in the news about our work? Isn't this just what heroes are meant for?" Sasaki grumbled internally, but agreed with his boss. For the past few days, he had been busy with taking care of his office while Fourth Kind was away on missions, doing community service, and training. This was not what he had signed up for, and he was growing tired of boring work. Coincidentally, at that moment the two heard screams from outside. Fourth Kind looked at Sasaki and nodded, moving towards the door. Sasaki grinned and followed his teacher outside. As Fourth Kind opened the door to the street, a wave of heat forced him back. He peered out a window, and saw a massive villain in the middle of the street.

He was about the size of All Might, and wore a gas mask and heavy orange pants and a coat. Flames danced around him as people screamed and ran, and he held out one hand. A stream of reddish-brown gel shot out, sticking to the side of a building. A flame touched the end of the gel, and it instantly combusted, sending a shockwave hurtling through the street. Further down the road, Fourth Kind saw several heroes trying to battle the blaze, but the water only seemed to spread the flames more. Sasaki kneeled down next to Fourth Kind.

"What's our plan?" he asked. Fourth Kind thought hard, and an idea came to him.

"Drakan," he said, "you're fireproof, right?" Sasaki nodded, and he continued. "Go out there and try to draw his attention. Try to lead him away from the people if you can. His attacks won't be able to hurt you, since he seems to primarily use that napalm-like substance. Get him far away, and me and the other pros will work on rescuing the people. We'll send backup to help you, but it might be a few minutes. Do you understand?" Sasaki nodded, face grim, and Fourth Kind grinned, giving him a thumbs up. "Go be a hero."

Sasaki stood and opened the door, the sudden wave of heat not affecting him. He stepped out into the knee-deep gel, flames licking at his body. He charged through the flames, and the villain noticed. He sprayed more napalm at Sasaki, and Sasaki spun. He scooped up a handful of the gel and flung it, hoping to simply distract him. He was shocked to hear the villain scream as the gel splattered on a patch of exposed skin on his neck, frantically trying to bat it away. Sasaki saw a dark burn on the villain's skin, and looked over to the building. "Fourth Kind!" he yelled. "The fire hurts him! He isn't immune to his own fire!"

He turned back to the villain and charged. The villain took off, his heavy metal boots splashing napalm everywhere. Sasaki chased after him, following him down the streets as terrified people scattered out of the way. The villain kept spraying napalm behind him to slow down Sasaki, but he just swatted the flaming gel away. Suddenly, the villain spun around suddenly, slamming his fist into Sasaki's nose. The impact stunned him, and he slipped, landing hard on his back. He heard laughing, and more gel splashed over him. He held his breath, trying not to get any in his mouth as the flames raced over him.

"You think you can stop me, kid?" the villain said, laughing. "You're nothing! And now, because of you, all of these people are going to die!" He raised his hands, and Sasaki saw a stream of napalm fountain into the air. His eyes widened as he saw it come arcing down, aiming right for a building labeled "Oramushi's Daycare". His cheeks swelled, and a massive wave of lava shot forth. It cooled to a thick layer of stone in the air, splashing the napalm away from the building. The villain grabbed Sasaki and lifted him into the air. He threw the massive hero at the rock, and his head slammed into it. He groaned as he fell to the ground, then yelled as a chunk of rock came crashing down onto his head. As he struggled to sit up, he saw a pair of orange eyes through the lenses of the villain's mask.

"Hear me, citizens of this town!" he cried, arms spread wide. "Look down at your 'hero', this failure! Look how he selflessly tried to save you all, but he couldn't even save himself!" He lifted the dazed hero over his head with one arm, presenting him like a trophy. "Let this child be an example to all who try to cross me, Firestorm!" He slammed Sasaki onto the ground and held out his hands. Sasaki, vision swimming, saw a burst of napalm splashing towards him, and rolled. He dodged the sticky gel and swung his fist, connecting with his mask. It shattered, and Firestorm roared in pain as the heat from the fire singed his hair. Sasaki grabbed him and swung him, launching the villain across the street. He raced over to him, delivering a massive blow to his head as he fell. Firestorm flew back, and caught himself in mid-air. He landed on his feet, and looked up to see a massive wave of lava rushing towards him. He froze, screaming, as his life flashed before his eyes. The orange glow decayed, and a massive chunk of rock slammed into his head.

* * *

Back at Fourth Kind's building, the heroes had managed to stop the blaze from Firestorm's napalm, and were administering first-aid to the civilians while the police searched for more victims. He heard a series of heavy footsteps from behind him, and Fourth Kind turned to see Sasaki stumbling over, legs smoking. In his hand, the villain hung limply, bright scarlet burns streaking up his face. He dropped the villain and fell back, sitting down as exhaustion consumed him. Police rushed over to handcuff Firestorm, and Fourth Kind, concerned, knelt down next to his intern, who was panting heavily. Sasaki grinned, and raised his arms.  
"I'm a hero now!" he cheered, laughing to himself. "I'm officially a hero!" Fourth Kind chuckled at the student.

"You sure are, Drakan, you sure are." Sasaki let his arms fall back down, and he closed his eyes, breathing deeply. "But you know, you aren't legally a hero until you get your license." Fourth Kind smirked at his new protégé. "I'm sure that shouldn't be a problem for you, though."

In the following hours, the news spread faster than Firestorm's napalm. Sasaki, who had been taken to a hospital for a checkup, was mobbed by throngs of reporters eager to interview the young hero. He gladly accepted, loving the attention they were giving him. He had defeated his first villain at just fifteen, one of the youngest heroes in the city. His friends had been messaging him, eager to hear about his fight. He assured them that he would tell them all about it back at school.

The next two days were less eventful, and mostly consisted of Sasaki doing more community service with Fourth Kind. This time, however, he felt greater satisfaction, as he heard people talking about his heroic actions while he worked. One little boy had run up to him and asked for his autograph! He smiled as he remembered the look of joy on the child's face when Sasaki signed his notebook. The train jolted, and Sasaki realized they were slowing down. He yawned, stretching his arms as the train stopped at the station. He hopped off at the station and began walking towards a large hill. His house was a simple stone building carved into the other side of the hill, beside the quarry his father owned.

As his house came into view, he heard a thundering laugh as his father waved to him from the entrance to the mine. His father was a vast, hulking figure, standing over seven feet tall and weighing an impressive 650 pounds. His powerful arms were legend around their small village, and there were rumors that he had dug the jewel mines his company ran with nothing but his bare hands. "Hey there, Drakan!" he called out, laughing. "Come, come, tell your mother and I all about your fight. She's been worried sick, but I knew my son was the toughest hero in the city!" Sasaki smiled as his mother emerged from their house and embraced him in a spine-crushing hug.

"Aaah, honey, I'm so proud of you!" she said, releasing him. "I was so worried when I saw the footage of your fight, but you fought him like a champ! That thick skin of yours sure came in handy!" His mother was around his height: about six and a half feet. She was slightly slimmer than he was, but was in no means any weaker. Working in the mines with her husband all day, carrying massive, thousand-carat gemstones he dug out all the way to the surface hundreds of feet above, had given her some of the strongest legs in Japan, and before she married Sasaki's father, she was a body builder. Her Quirk gave her virtually impenetrable skin; completely fireproof, nothing short of a tank round could scratch her. Sasaki's father had the same Quirk his son had, Eruption, but he mostly used it to fuel their stoves and to create supports for the mineshafts.

Sasaki had gotten the best of both Quirks when he developed them; his skin, while not as tough as his mother's, was still tougher than rock; the only things that had ever managed to cut him were Moki's talons. All three had the same white hair and dark orange skin, and were generally shaped the same: large and rounded, yet incredibly strong, sort of like how an overweight biker can still lift his motorcycle over his head, even though it weighs the same as him.

As the sun descended over hill that evening, Sasaki laid down in his large, custom-built bed. Everyone in his family had custom beds, as they were too heavy for standard wood-frame ones. They were made out of stone, and were fitted with high-density foam for comfort. Sasaki looked around his room, which was furnished with various gym equipment, and yawned, resting his head on his pillow. The next morning, he walked into the classroom, and sensed something was off. Midnight was standing in front of the class, silently staring at her lectern. Everyone was nervously whispering to each other, occasionally sending glances to the empty seat in the second row. Sasaki warily took his seat, and Midnight solemnly looked up to the class.

"Everyone, I have some bad news," she said. She sighed, then threw a desolate look to the empty desk. "Toschi Hatsume has quit the hero program."

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Uh oh, what happened to Toschi that made him quit? Up next will be Moki's internship, then Reikokuna, then I'll finish it off with Toschi's internship with All Might and the two other Sports Festival champions. Also, if you couldnt tell by now, I was heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for this story. Toschi's Quirk is the most obvious one, as Stasis is one of the runes Link can use with the Sheikah Slate, but the design for Sasaki and his family was inspired by the Gorons, a race of large, heat-resistant miners that live on Death Mountain. Moki was inspired by the Rito warriors, a race of bird-people that can fly rather fast and are incredibly good archers (I left that part out when I created Moki). The villain in Reikokuna's internship (spoiler alert) is going to be inspired by the Zora, a race of half-fish people. Also, in Moki's chapter, one of the characters is an easter egg. If you can guess what it is before Toschi's chapter is released, I'll try to incorporate your OC in the story. Have fun, and enjoy!**


	8. Chapter 7: Internships: Moki-Chan

Chapter 7: Internships: Moki-Chan

A week had passed, and the students stood at the train station, saying their goodbyes to each other as they left to their respective internships. Moki hugged her friends goodbye and opened the door to a waiting taxi, getting in and shutting the door behind her.

"Where to?" the driver asked, not looking back.

"Kamino Ward, Edgeshot's office," Moki responded, waving out the window as her friends got onto the train. The car started moving, and she settled back, closing her eyes. She slept for a few minutes before cracking one eye open, sensing something was off. She glanced towards the taxi driver, who was eying her in the rearview mirror. He slowly reached into his pocket, not noticing that she had awakened, and pulled out his phone. His hand slinked back to the back seat, and he aimed the phone at her. Moki realized that her skirt had ridden up a little bit, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the phone's flash go off. Her talons slashed up, slicing the phone into pieces. The driver jumped and turned around in shock. He winced as he saw Moki glaring at him, holding the top half of his phone. She tossed it back to him, and snapped her legs together as he gulped and turned back around.

* * *

The rest of the drive was uneventful, and the driver was so scared of Moki's furious claws that he didn't even ask her to pay for the ride. He just unloaded her bag from the trunk and peeled out, racing away from the stop. Moki huffed and turned to the building she had been dropped off at. It was shaped like a large, red pagoda, traditional paper lanterns hanging off the edges of the roof struts. A grand staircase led to the entrance, and she fluttered to the top, holding her bag in her claws. She landed just outside the large wooden doors, and stepped back slightly as they opened on their own.

Inside, the pagoda was furnished with golden accents on the marble floor. Several Zen gardens lined the far wall, and a pool of water, base decorated in an intricate pattern of gems, sat in the middle of the entryway. A drop fell to the center of the pool, and Moki looked up to see a large, golden model of Mt. Fuji hanging upside-down on the ceiling, eighty feet above her. She set her bag down and fluttered up, marveling at the level of detail in the model. With her powerful eyes, she could even see little tiny hikers on the mountain, less than a millimeter tall. She heard a throat clear beside her, and she squawked and lost her focus for a second. She looked to her left, and saw Edgeshot's amused face staring back at her, a thin string leading to the floor below them.

"Very detailed, is it not?" he asked her, nodding at the sculpture. "I carved the people in there myself. They're my parents. When I became a pro, they decided to retire, and moved to the mountain. My mother loves the view from the peak." He retracted back down to the ground, and Moki followed, swooping down and landing on her bag. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of talon sheaths. These were metal, just like the rest of hers, but they were coated in rubber and kept her claws from scratching up floors. They also allowed her to gain traction and walk, like sneakers. She put them on and hopped down, anxiously drumming her talons on the floor, rocking back and forth slightly. Edgeshot regarded her with intrigue, walking around her, stroking his chin. He held out her wing and observed the feathers, clearly satisfied with what he was seeing.

"How fast can you fly?" he asked, letting go of her wing.

"Um," Moki said, "I'm comfortable at about 140 miles per hour or so, but I can reach almost 200 for a few seconds." Upon seeing his surprised expression, she gave a small smile.

"Well then, Ms. Tsubasa, what should I call you?" Edgeshot asked. "What do you wish to be known as?"

"Oh, I'm Moki-Chan," she said. "I want people to think I'm cute." Edgeshot nodded, and turned, beckoning her to follow.

"I will show you to your room for the week, then we will begin. I will be training you in the art of stealth and reflexes. I noticed your incredible speed and agility in the Sports Festival, but I did notice a slight delay in your reactions. I hope to strengthen you to make you a better hero." Arriving at a thin, traditional paper door, he opened it and entered the room. Moki looked around, interested. The walls were made of paper, in the traditional Japanese style, and the floor was covered in tatami mats. A small reed mattress sat by one side, a silk blanket neatly folded on top of it, and several pillows were scattered across the floor.

"It isn't much, but it should suffice for the week," Edgeshot said, glancing at her. "Ah, and just a heads up, sound does travel in the hallway." His face tinted red for a moment. "I can't stop you from doing anything, but if you feel the urge to, erm, _enjoy_yourself, keep the noise down. I have had that problem before with interns." Moki blushed, subtly stepping away from the mattress, giving it a disturbed look. "If you need me at any time, my office is at the end of the hall. I'll give you some time to get unpacked, then meet me in the entrance in half an hour." He bowed politely, then left, softly shutting the door behind him. Moki blinked, his words echoing in her head, then she shuddered and set her bag down next to the mattress. She opened it and pulled out her various talon sheaths.

Moki had four different sheaths. She was wearing her "sneakers", the rubber sheathes that she tended to wear indoors. She also had her steel ones, her usual choice. They were about five inches long and curled inwards, and she spent over an hour each day ensuring that they were perfectly polished and sharpened. A set of serrated sheaths lay under the steel ones. They were perfect for climbing in situations where she couldn't fly, and were excellent at tearing through metal. Beneath those, a set of angry, matte black sheaths lay in a special box.

They were made of an incredibly high strength faceted tungsten-carbide alloy, and were some of the sharpest blades in the world. They were sharper than obsidian surgical blades, and could hold their edge for years without the need for re-sharpening. They were so sharp, they could slice through diamond like a white-hot guillotine through butter. They could sever nerves so cleanly, getting cut by them was painless. One slash could make a person bleed out in mere seconds. They were called the "Hayabusa Blades", made by her father, an excellent bladesmith. Moki rarely used them, as she liked the shiny steel ones better, and they always made her a bit nervous. They were incredibly deadly, and her father had almost lost his entire leg after he accidentally dropped one. It had sliced all the way through his left thigh, including the bone, and it was only with the quick actions of Moki and her mother applying a tourniquet and rushing him to the hospital that he even survived. Since then, he had relearned to walk, but had a permanent limp, and it always broke Moki's heart to see him struggle.

She pushed those thoughts aside and pulled out the rest of her costume. She quickly removed her jacket and tie, and neatly folded them, putting them aside. Moki was a bit of a neat freak, as a result of her needing to preen her feathers every week. She unbuttoned her blouse and skirt, and folded both of them as well, setting them off to the side and depositing her bra on top. She slipped on a set of tan shorts, and clipped her belt around her waist. She took a moment to look over her talon sheaths, checking their sharpness to her satisfaction. She placed them in their individual pouches on her belt, and grabbed the final piece of her costume: a tan fabric strip that wrapped around her chest. She tightened the knot, and pulled out a small mirror from her bag, checking her feathers from every angle. After correcting the few crooked and misaligned offenders, she put her stuff away and opened the door.

She walked out to the entrance hall and took off, lazily flapping around the columns. She swooped back and forth, spiraling through the air as she dodged various decorations and tapestries, and finally streaked towards the ground before leveling off just inches from crashing. She shot across the room like a bullet and spied Edgeshot, watching her with an impressed look in his eyes. She soared over to him and flapped her wings, slowing down and rising into the air, before flipping backwards and landing in front of him. He gave her polite applause, mentally noting that she didn't even appear to be tired in any way. "Very impressive," he said, "clearly full of talent. Now, follow me. We will begin your training immediately."

* * *

Two days later, Edgeshot received a call from the chief of police. As he spoke with the chief, Moki sat down, panting. Two straight days of training had exhausted her; she worked on her leg strength for hours each morning (her wings were plenty strong as a result of her speed), then she spent a few more sparring with Edgeshot, working on her reflexes. After that, they would go on patrol around the city. They had stopped one mugging that Moki spotted a few blocks down an alleyway, giving the criminal a rather frightful trip into the stratosphere.

Edgeshot put down the phone and looked over to Moki. "Congratulations," he said, "you get to go on your first mission." Moki looked over, excited. "There's a man who goes by the name 'Headcrawler' who's been causing lots of trouble. Apparently, he has a Quirk called 'Leech' that allows him to absorb a person's memories if he bites their head. He's attacked numerous people, including a few heroes. His bites cause amnesia for a few hours, and his attacks have caused disturbance in the city. He's been attacking teachers, absorbing their intelligence. The police estimate him to have a rough IQ score of almost 7,000."

"So, what's our first step?" Moki asked.

"Our first step is to try to establish a pattern." Edgeshot beckoned Moki to follow, and went to his office. He turned on the computer and began typing into a program. "We already know that his primary targets are teachers, so we should make a location of all of his attacks and see if we can determine anything else." Twenty minutes later, they had logged all of the attacks. Immediately, Moki had noticed that all of the attacks had been at various universities across the city, and there were exactly eight attacks per school, with one outlier.

"Look," she said, pointing to one of the colleges, "This one has less attacks than the rest of them. I think he'll strike here next."

"Excellent work," Edgeshot complimented. "Let's head over there and speak with the headmaster of the academy." Thirty minutes later, they were in the headmaster's office. Edgeshot was speaking with him, while Moki was looking around the room, examining the various trophies and awards the school had won. She heard Edgeshot clear his throat, and turned around. "Come, Moki-Chan, let's go. We're going to patrol the school to keep an eye out for this criminal." As she followed him out of the room, something in one of the trophy cases caught her eye. There was a slight movement in the reflection of the room behind her, then she saw a small dark shape materialize on the ceiling and drop down onto the headmaster.

She whipped around and saw a small, dark person on the back of the headmaster's chair. He was about three and a half feet tall, and his head was long and tube-shaped, like a worm. Six beady eyes stared at her, and his mouth was latched onto the now unconscious headmaster's forehead, a slight trickle of blood leaking down. He let go and hissed at her, a circle of sharp, bloody teeth pointing at her. She leapt at him and he jumped into the air, crawling through a vent. She chased after him as Edgeshot rushed back into the room. "Moki-Chan, wait!" he yelled, but she had already disappeared into the vent, following the leech. He unraveled his body and his head raced into the vent, but was immediately met with a maze of ventilation shafts. He could hear Moki's claws scratching against the pipes, but he couldn't determine which one it was coming from. He dropped back out and checked on the headmaster, who was dazed and confused, then pulled out his phone and called the police.

In the vents, Moki was scrambling after Headcrawler, her sharp eyes locked onto his retreating form. She wove through the maze of vents, nearly catching up to him, then he slinked down a narrow vent, leaving a trail of slime behind him. Moki grimaced, tentatively touching the slime with the tip of her wing. Her feathers clumped together, and she fought back the urge to try and preen them out. Taking a deep breath, she crawled into the thin pipe, shuddering as she felt the thick slime coat her feathers. Her grip failed, and she squawked as she slid down the pipe, gaining speed as the air duct steepened, then saw a metal panel shoot out and block off the pipe. She opened her beak to scream, but crashed into the panel, instantly falling unconscious.

* * *

She woke up in darkness. She felt duct tape wrapping around her wings and ankles, strapping her to what felt like a wooden plank. She tried to open her beak, but something was restraining it. She heard wet footsteps behind her, and a slimy hand stroked along her neck, briefly tightening around her throat.

"Who are you?" a raspy voice croaked, and Moki saw six glowing dots float in front of her. "Who is this hero that dares try and catch me?" Moki jerked her head forwards, trying to spear the villain with her beak. He slinked back, regarding her with cold, uncaring eyes. "So aggressive. Rather unbecoming of a hero, is it not?" The lights flashed on, and Moki squinted her eyes against the brilliant light. Headcrawler stood before her, a drop of blood hanging from his jaw. Now that she got a good look at him, she could see he was even shorter than she was and rather thin, and had dark mottled skin. Moki didn't know if she was disoriented, but it seemed to her that the splotchy patterns on his skin was constantly changing, like the skin of a cuttlefish. "I see you've noticed my chromatophores," he rasped. "They allow me to camouflage myself, becoming invisible. I doubt even a pigeon like you could detect me. That being said," he began to pace in front of her, eyeing her with intrigue, "how did you manage to get this far? How did you manage to track me down? Could it be, perhaps, that you noticed my pattern? Did you perhaps notice an outlier in my symmetry? And how did you manage to follow me through the maze of vents? I was even camouflaging my trail. And yet, you came so far, and still fell into my trap. I have you here, completely isolated from any outside interference. I doubt even All Might could help you now. Not that he would, he's busy with his own intern. That Hatsume, what I wouldn't give for his mind."

On hearing her friend's name, Moki's eyes widened, and Headcrawler took notice. "Oh, yes, I know all about you students. I've learned all about you from your previous teachers." A wicked grin crossed his face. "And your current ones." Moki gasped through her gag, and Headcrawler laughed. "Yes, I've taken on pros before. I've beaten the pros. I am the smartest being on Earth! Nobody can even compare to me! Except, that Hatsume. I need his mind, I want his mind, I crave his mind, I NEED IT!" As he spoke, he worked himself into a furious rage, throwing things around the room. A scrap of wood bounced off Moki's beak, and he stopped, turning around with murder in his eyes. "I don't need you. I don't need a birdbrain like you. I don't want your mind, I want you out of my way." As he insulted her, Moki's eyes darkened in anger. "Now, before I go steal your friend's mind," he growled, "I need to deal with you."

He went behind the board she was taped to, and she was suddenly flipped upside-down. She glanced down at the ground and saw Headcrawler open a trapdoor under her. Her eyes widened as he revealed a vat of boiling water, and she frantically struggled against the tape. The board began to lower, and as she struggled, she realized that the steam from the boiling water was clearing out her feathers. As the steam beaded up and rinsed the slime out of her wings, she felt the tape begin to swell and expand from the humidity. As the boiling water grew closer, she pulled with all of her strength, and her wings tore free, the tape plucking a strip of feathers off of them. She screamed, muffled through the gag, and freed her legs, dropping to the floor just as the board sank into the water. She glared up at Headcrawler, who dropped to all fours and closed his eyes. His skin shimmered, and his form disappeared from sight. She heard him scuttling across the wall, and reached into her pouch, pulling out her steel sheaths. She flung them at the source of the noise, and heard a grating screech as Headcrawler's form reappeared, clutching at his severed arm. Moki flew towards him, and he rolled out of the way. His shoulder began to ripple, and Moki stared in shock as his arm began to grow back.

He hissed at her and scuttled forwards, teeth bared. Moki leapt to the side, her claws slashing out. Headcrawler ducked under them and sank his teeth into her thigh. She spun, throwing him off of her, and fell down, panting. The bite didn't hurt, but it was bleeding. She looked up just as he jumped, teeth bared as he descended upon her. She rolled on her back, claws slashing up, and she heard a gargled scream, and she was splashed in blood. She sat up, and saw Headcrawler writhing on the ground, stomach sliced open. He frantically tried to gather his guts together, pulling the back into his body as the gash began to close up. He groaned as his wound healed, then tried to sit up, but felt a set of claws press against his neck.

"Make a move," Moki said, glaring at him, "and I'll cut you where you won't regenerate."

* * *

Two hours later, the police were leading Headcrawler away as medics tended to Moki, who had passed out. She had tied him up and forced him to take her out of his lair, which took a while. Edgeshot had found her as they exited the hidden base under the town hall and had profusely apologized for getting her involved in such a dangerous situation. He had been searching for her for hours, but had been unable to find her. After the police and medics showed up, they had taken Headcrawler to the police station for processing, and the medics had taken Moki to the hospital. She had lost almost a third of the feathers on her wings, and the bite on her leg hadn't stopped bleeding ever since. Headcrawler's saliva, like leeches and other bloodsucking parasites, had a powerful anticoagulant, and for the next three days Moki was on an IV drip, racked with a severe infection. She was in and out of consciousness with heavy fevers and dehydration, and ended up getting a total blood transfusion.

When she finally woke up, the first thing she saw was a pile of black feathers. Her father was sitting in a chair next to her bed, sleeping. Groggily, she reached her wing out and rubbed his shoulder, and he jerked awake. He looked over, seeing his daughter giving him a tired smile.

"Moki!" He wrapped her in a big hug, a tear dripping from his eye. "I was so scared when I heard you had gotten captured! But I knew my daughter was strong, and look at you! You defeated a villain all on your own!" Moki returned her father's hug, a tear squeezing out of her own eye as she smiled.

Later that day, Moki was discharged from the hospital. Edgeshot had come to apologize for her internship ending so early, and brought her a present. It was a set of custom-made talon sheaths, made of silver and platinum and with intricate gold gilding. They weren't actually sharp, but Moki thought they were pretty, so she decided to wear them at fancy events (she went to a lot of those, as her father was a master craftsman and former professional athlete). That night, they arrived back at her home, nestled in the forest. It was a large, luxurious cherry tree that had several rooms hollowed out of it, and Moki's room was at the very top. She couldn't fly yet, as her feathers were still growing back in, but she could climb the exterior of the tree with her claws. She made it to her room and flopped on her bed, exhausted from the week's events. Her room was large, and she had a round, fluffy bed with pink blankets and pillows strewn about. She had a large assortment of mirrors on her walls so she could preen her feathers from all angles, and various stuffed animals sat on shelves scattered across the room.

Her father landed on the branch outside her room that served as a "doorstep", more like a perch to take off from. He set her bags down on the floor and limped over to her. Her father was large for a bird; almost six feet tall. He was a magnificent condor, shiny black feathers making his enormous wings shimmer in the moonlight, somewhat matching his silvery eyes that seemingly shone in every color of the rainbow when the light hit them a certain way. The rest of his body was black, but his belly and the feathers around his eyes were a deep blood red. A jagged scar ran up his left thigh, nearly circling his entire leg, and the feathers on the right side of his face were patchy and ruffled. In his career as an athlete, he competed in the Quirk Olympics as an endurance flier, and was a three-time gold medalist in the 5,000 km and 10,000 km races, the latter of which took almost the entire week to complete. He had set the world record in the 5,000 km race when Moki was just four, completing the race in an astounding 93 hours and 17 minutes, sleeping less than four hours in the whole race. However, his career had been tragically cut short two years later in an accident that burned the right side of his face, impairing his vision and lung capacity. He was still a very strong flier, but was limited to short distances.

Her mother had passed away when Moki was twelve, two years after her father had made the Hayabusa Blades. She had been a meteorologist, serving as a field reporter. She was one of the best fliers in the world, and could even fly through a hurricane with no problem. During a particularly massive storm three years ago, she had been struck by lightning while reporting, and fell almost 9,000 feet into the ocean. Moki had watched her mother's death on live television, and had cried for weeks afterwards. Her father had mourned as well, but had never stopped caring for Moki. Perhaps the reason he was so protective of his only daughter was that he couldn't bear to live with himself if he lost her too. Moki was his reason to keep on living, his reason to go to work every day.

Her father owned a small shop that sold custom carvings and weapons. His most popular item was a decorative katana, worth almost two million yen. It was expertly crafted, each example taking over three weeks to create. They were decorated with jeweled inlays in the hilt, and the blades were intricately carved with golden accents and the customer's name. They were fiercely sharp, almost as sharp as Moki's talon sheaths, but dulled easily. In any case, nobody actually used their katanas as weapons. They were practically art pieces, known all across Japan. Her father received dozens of commissions per week, and made plenty of money. Moki remembered one time several years ago when his first example ever produced was brought to auction. She remembered seeing his excitement as the price rose higher and higher, before finally selling at over 29 million yen.

Her father leaned over her as her eyes struggled to stay open. He tucked her in and placed a small kiss on her forehead, then left, closing the door behind him. The next morning was school, and Moki got up a half-hour earlier than she usually did so that she could fix her feathers. She sighed, staring at her body in the mirror. Her wings were still bandaged where the feathers had been ripped out, but there were dozens of feathers that were still matted from Headcrawler's slime. An hour later, she had finally cleaned and fixed all of her feathers, and began to get dressed for school. Twenty minutes later, she was finally ready to go (it took her a while to get dressed; trying to put on a shirt without ruffling your feathers that you just spent an hour preening is difficult). She hopped down the branches outside her room, descending to the ground in short time. She skipped to the bus station and pulled out her phone.

Forty-five minutes later, she was sitting in her desk. She was waiting for Sasaki to come in so that she could grill him about his internship. On the way to school, she had seen a news article that stated he defeated a powerful villain all on his own, and she wanted to hear about it from him. She glanced around behind her, noticing that Toschi's desk was still empty. _I wonder what's taking him,_she thought, frowning. _He's usually one of the first people here._

"Psst! Moki!" She turned upon hearing her voice, and saw Shikora looking at her, a dangerous glint in her eye. She usually had that look when she had a piece of juicy gossip, and Moki leaned back. "Did you hear what happened to Hatsume?" Shikora asked. Moki shook her head, nervous. Shikora looked around before leaning in and whispering to her. "I overheard one of the third-years talking to one of the students that interned alongside Hatsume with All Might, and apparently something happened to him on a mission. He was really shaken up about it, and he actually left halfway through the internship!" Moki gasped, looking over to the empty desk.

"Does that mean…" The door opened, cutting her off. She looked over, and saw it was Sasaki. He looked around, taking in the tense atmosphere, then sat in his desk.

"What's with everyone today?" he asked Moki, leaning forwards. She opened her beak to respond, but Midnight spoke first.

"Everyone, I have some bad news," she said. She sighed, then threw a desolate look to the empty desk. "Toschi Hatsume has quit the hero program."

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Damn, that was some difficult stuff Moki went through (me too- 4,900 words!). Did you like her backstory? I thought it was interesting to add in that little detail about her "Hayabusa Blades", I felt that really brought a sense of importance to them, like they're much more important to Moki than just some generic blades. Also, did anyone catch the easter egg about Headcrawler? Remember, tell me before I release Toschi's chapter, and your OC will be incorporated into the story! Enjoy!**


	9. Chapter 8: Internships: Beorn

Chapter 8: Internships: Beorn

Reikokuna bowed to his friends at the train station before stepping into the waiting car. As the class soon found out, Reikokuna's parents owned an oil company in the Sea of Japan, and his family was rather wealthy. His father's chauffer, Katai, nodded to him as he sat in the reclined executive seat of his father's Maybach, sighing as the massaging seats worked a knot out of his back. Transforming into different animals meant using muscles you didn't even knew you had, and he would get rather stiff after a hard day of training.

"Where to, sir?" Katai asked from the driver's seat, setting the radio to relaxing classical music for his young master.

"I believe that Mr. Sub Nautica works near the Coast Guard base," Reikokuna said, not opening his eyes and letting out another grunt as the massage program hit another kink in his lower back. "Let us head there, and I shall begin my work immediately." The hero he was interning under, Sub Nautica, had a rather unusual Quirk. It was called "Pressurize", and it allowed him to control his body's internal pressure, and consequently, his internal temperature. He worked as a diver, spending much of his time in the ocean doing rescue missions, and as a result of his Quirk, he could dive to a maximum depth of over 30,000 feet. A rather interesting part of his abilities was that he could adjust his skin's pressure so finely that he could passively absorb oxygen through his skin, allowing him to breathe underwater. He had a sense of pride about his job, and just like his intern, loved to work hard.

Reikokuna, unlike most wealthy teens his age, was more than willing to get dirty and sweaty, and actually enjoyed doing work. It made him feel pride whenever something he made or fixed worked flawlessly, and he would do lots of community service. Whenever some charity group was having an event, he was the first person to volunteer to help. He worked with animal rescue programs (since he could become the animals they typically rescued, he could communicate with them and earn their trust much faster), construction projects (gorillas and horses can carry immense amounts of weight), search-and-rescue teams for lost children and elders around the city (he could communicate with the various critters around the city, who often saw almost everything that happened), and even ordered Katai to stop the car once when he saw a traffic accident. Not only did he end up saving the victims' lives, but he also offered to help repair their car for free (he sometimes helped out on his father's oil rigs, and consequently knew a lot about mechanics).

* * *

An hour later, Reikokuna was standing at the doorway to a small shack on the pier, lightly knocking on the door. A tall old man opened the door and looked him over. The man had blue-green mottled skin and dark green hair that clumped together, looking rather like kelp. Despite his age, he had large muscles that rivalled Reikokuna's, and a thin hint of stubble dotted his square, well-defined chin.

"You're the intern, right? Beorn?" he asked, voice scratchy yet stern. "Come on in, I'll brief you on what we're going to be doing this week." Reikokuna bowed and followed the hero inside. He set his bag down near the door and sat in a chair in front of Sub Nautica's desk, which was littered with various papers, fishhooks, and ropes. "Now, before we get into anything," Sub Nautica said, leaning back in his chair, "let me tell you why I wanted you here. You remind me of me, in a way. We're both strong, handsome men, we both have a good sense of honor and hold others to a high respect, and we both make stupid mistakes." His gaze hardened and he leaned forwards. "Not that you were weak at the Sports Festival, you did fantastic, but you could have done better. I saw you hold back on that Hatsume kid. You could have beaten him in a heartbeat, but you wanted to give him a chance to prove his strength. A mindset like that is great for a student looking to make friends, but not as a hero trying to stop criminals." He stood up, turning towards a metal locker behind him.

"I made some mistakes like that when I was your age, forty-eight years ago," he said as he opened a drawer and began rummaging through it. "On my first mission out in my internship, I got cocky and let the villain get away. When the pros finally caught him two weeks later, he had killed two people." He turned back around, holding a piece of metal. He set it down on the desk, and Reikokuna saw it was a short section of steel pipe, walls almost an inch thick. One end seemed to be torn, as if someone had ripped it out of whatever pipe it had been a part of. "But that's only half the reason I needed you. I work as a maintenance worker and guard on an oil rig a few miles offshore. Someone's been sabotaging it. I found this piece of pipe torn out of one of the legs. See this mark here?" he asked, pointing out a strange puncture. "That's a tooth mark. Whoever did this bit through two inches of steel, 1,400 meters underwater. They caused almost 2 billion yen of damage with one bite. I need someone who can dive underwater like me to help me stop this criminal. Are you up for it?" Reikokuna stared back at him, gaze never faltering.

"If I had thought that I could not do the jobs required of a hero," he said, "then I would never have even tried. I am not one to overestimate my own capabilities. I will become a hero, and I will do whatever it takes to protect the people." Sub Nautica nodded, closing his eyes.

"Very well then," he said, reaching up to the rafters and pulling down a large harpoon, "let's go chase some bad guys." Five minutes later, he was standing at the end of the dock, stretching. He was wearing a black wetsuit with blue stripes down the arms and carbon fiber plates on his chest, back, forearms, shins, and groin. He had a set of scuba goggles on, and strapped to his ankles were small turbines. His harpoon lay next to him, and the rest of his equipment consisted of small spearguns and lights strapped to his arms, a spotlight attached to his mask, and shark-like fins on his calves. Reikokuna sat behind him in his shorts, meditating, clearing his mind.

"Whelp," Sub Nautica said, picking up his harpoon, "let's go." He dove into the water and his turbines kicked in, sending him down into the depths. Reikokuna stood and leapt into the air. As he fell towards the water, his skin turned blue, and his nose grew long and sharp. Reikokuna, the swordfish, plunged into the water and sped off after Sub Nautica. He swam after the departing hero, catching up to him in no time. Sub Nautica glanced over and gave a thumbs up, to which Reikokuna wagged his fin. The two heroes raced through the blue depths, rocketing past schools of fish, until they came across a set of giant concrete and iron pillars, sinking all the way to the seafloor. Sub Nautica rocketed to the surface, launching into the air, before landing on the platform of the oil rig. Reikokuna shot through the waves, flipping through the air as he transformed back to a human, and landed next to Sub Nautica, flipping his long black hair away from his face. Several workers were doing their jobs, and gave polite nods to the heroes as Sub Nautica led the way to the main control room.

"You know what?" Reikokuna asked. "I think this is one of my father's oil rigs." Sub Nautica looked over his shoulder in surprise.

"Really? What a coincidence," he said, looking at a logo on the wall. It read "Reikokuna Oil Company". He stared at it for a few seconds, looking back at Reikokuna every so often. "Huh." He knocked on a door, and without waiting for a response, went in. A large, bearded, muscular man was sitting behind a desk, one eyebrow raised at the intruders.

"Oh, it's you. Come in," he said in a gruff voice, waving them over with a massive hairy arm. "You here to get rid of our shark problem?" He held out a few pictures to Sub Nautica as he sat in a chair across from the foreman. "Caught this bitch chewing through our pipes on a security camera." As Reikokuna and Sub Nautica looked over the surveillance photos, the foreman continued. "Calls herself "Hammerhead", he said, "I guess that's her Quirk. No clue why she's trying to destroy our rig. I was hoping you two could knock some sense into her." The photos showed a tall, grey-skinned woman swimming around the base of the rig. Her head was shaped like a hammerhead shark's, and she had fins on the sides of her calves and forearms. Her hands and feet were webbed and clawed, and her mouth was filled with rows of terrifyingly sharp and jagged teeth. "She's been coming around here every few days, you just missed her. She was here yesterday."

"We'll get her," Sub Nautica said, standing up. "Come, Beorn, let's go fishing." The two left the room, and walked to the railing on the edge of the platform. "Beorn, I need you to go and catch some fish," Sub Nautica said. "The bigger the better." Reikokuna nodded and dove off the railing, transforming into a large sea lion. Over the next half hour, he managed to haul in almost 100 fish, mainly tuna. Sub Nautica grabbed a large tub and dumped all of the fish into it. "Beorn," he called, "come turn this into chum." He morphed into a polar bear and slashed the fish with his claws, slowly grinding them down to a bloody soup. Sub Nautica dumped the tub of blood and guts into the ocean, then nodded to Reikokuna, diving off to the side of the chum as fish already began to nibble at it.

The two heroes waited near the cloud of blood, watching for Hammerhead to appear. For about fifteen minutes, there were only sharks and barracudas preying on the chum, but finally, a grey woman appeared. She narrowed her eyes, looking around her suspiciously. Before the two could react, she had turned and was dashing straight towards Sub Nautica, jaws wide open. He dodged to the side, firing his speargun at her. It stuck in her thigh, and her face contorted in pain. She whirled around, biting through the line and shooting away. Reikokuna transformed into a mako shark and gave chase, followed closely by Sub Nautica. His powerful tail churned through the water as he slowly caught up to Hammerhead, snapping at her heels as she kicked harder. She suddenly dove down, and Reikokuna turned sharply, avoiding an underwater cliff she had been leading him to. He looked down, and saw a maze of tunnels in the cliff face.

_Which one did she go into? _He thought to himself as Sub Nautica began shining his lights down the tunnels, inspecting them. _I am certain that this is where her hideout must be._He transformed into an eel and slid into one of the tunnels. He swam through the maze, his nose picking up the scent of blood. He followed the trail, the sharp odor acting as a magnet to him. Slithering into an opening, he saw Hammerhead floating in a small cavern, struggling to remove the harpoon barb from her leg. He felt a deep, rumbling growl as she closed her teeth around the end of the barb and ripped, tearing it out. Her jaw clenched in pain, and he saw the barb snap in half, a broken tooth sinking to the bottom. He slowly backed out and returned to Sub Nautica, memorizing the path as he went. Exiting the labyrinth, he transformed into an octopus and signed to Sub Nautica. He gestured with his tentacle, showing the grizzled hero the path he took, and Sub Nautica nodded, pointing to the surface. He rose through the surf, swimming towards the shore of a nearby island. Reikokuna leapt out of the waves as a dolphin, transforming back into human form in mid-air before landing next to his mentor.

"Our next step is to tell the Coast Guard where she is," Sub Nautica said, pulling a small waterproof radio out of his belt. "They'll send in a team to isolate the passage to her secret cavern, and then we'll send her the terms of her surrender. We shouldn't get in a fight with her." As he spoke to the captain of a nearby Coast Guard boat on the radio, Reikokuna transformed into a pelican and took off. He circled above the island, examining it. The island was small, about the size of the cafeteria at U.A, he thought. About half of it was covered in trees and plants, and the rest was rocky, gravelly beaches. His eye picked out something suspicious, and he swooped down to a bush, transforming into a crab before sneaking off. He came across what looked to be a small lagoon in the middle of the island, the bottom of which seemed to go down for dozens of meters. He approached it, but a sudden splash made him curl up, blending into the rest of the rocks. A single eye stalk rose up, and he saw Hammerhead in the lagoon, staggering onto the shore. She grimaced as a rivulet of blood dripped down her leg, and she yanked a palm frond off of a tree and tied it around the wound.

"Goddamn old man shooting at me," she muttered, laying down on her stomach. "Can't he just let me be alone? Why does everyone try to shoot me?" She sighed, and rolled onto her back, dipping her hand into the lagoon and splashing some water on her face. "It's not like I've killed anybody, right?" she asked herself. "All I've done to anybody is try to destroy that oil rig in my fishing spot, scaring away all the fish with its loud drill, and how do I get repaid? They send the fucking heroes after me! I'm not the bad one here!" She snarled and swiped her clawed hand at a tree, leaving deep scratch marks in it. She coughed and looked at her arms, which were beginning to shrivel. She slinked back into the lagoon, floating on her back. Reikokuna slowly skittered off, and transformed back into a bird, flapping to Sub Nautica. He found the hero where he had left him, tapping his foot.

"I saw you leave, so I assumed you were scouting this island," he said as Reikokuna transformed back into a human. "Did you find anything?"

"It appears that this island is connected to Hammerhead's tunnel system," Reikokuna said. "There is a lagoon in the middle of it that she appeared in. She is currently sunbathing and speaking to herself."

"Oh, really?" Sub Nautica raised an eyebrow. "What's she saying?"

"She was referring to her motive," Reikokuna said. "She seemed like she was trying to justify her crimes to herself. Apparently, the oil rig is located in a prime fishing spot, and the sounds of the drill scare away her fish. I believe she wishes to get rid of the rig so that she can freely fish there again."

Sub Nautica scratched his chin, eyes closed in thought. "You see, Beorn, this poses a dilemma to us heroes," he said, looking at his intern. "Do we ignore her personal reasons and arrest her for the damages she's caused, or do we try to work out an agreement between her and the foreman of the oil rig? If they can't decide, what then? Do we tell her to go away somewhere else? Do we tell her to suck it up and find a new fishing spot? Would it be too harsh to charge her, or do we as heroes have the responsibility and duty to arrest all criminals, no matter the reason?"

A splash behind the duo made them jump and look back just as Hammerhead leapt out of the brush, teeth bared. She clamped her jaw around Reikokuna's arm and yanked him back as he yelled, punching at her. He transformed into a gorilla and pried at her jaw, but she bit down harder. Sub Nautica aimed his speargun at her, but she yanked Reikokuna in front of her, blocking his shot. She dragged him to the lagoon and dove, tugging him deep underwater. He choked and tried to transform, but a rush of seawater into his lungs ruined his concentration. As his ears popped and the sun grew distant and dark, he forced all of his mental strength into his body, and transformed.

Sub Nautica was about to leap into the water after his intern when the lagoon suddenly erupted into the air, millions of gallons of water blasting into the sky as a massive dark form soared out of the crevasse. An enormous, writhing mass of tentacles, hundreds of feet tall, spilled from the depths of the island, a deep, rumbling roar emanating from within its body. Its tentacles were knobbed with large suckers lined with sharp, jagged teeth, and large, glowing yellow eyes leered out through the thrashing tentacles. Sub Nautica fell back in shock, staring up at the colossal beast. Hundreds of feet in the air, Hammerhead screamed in terror as the monster flung her down, crashing into the ground. She trembled as the monster roared, tentacles smashing all around her. Its tentacles drooped, and its massive, slitted eyes fell shut and Reikokuna transformed back into a human, unconscious from the effort of holding such a form. He fell from the sky, limbs flailing as the wind rushed around him. Sub Nautica looked down in horror at the lagoon he was falling towards, water just beginning to rush back in but still very empty. He kneeled down to leap and catch him, but a grey streak blew past him. He watched in shock as Hammerhead jumped into the air, catching Reikokuna in her arms and crashing into the ground, rolling to a halt against a tree. She groaned as Sub Nautica rushed over to them. She limply held out her arms to him, and he slapped a set of handcuffs around her wrists as he knelt down next to Reikokuna.

"Hey, kid!" Sub Nautica shook him, trying to wake his unconscious intern. "Beorn, wake up! Can you hear me?" Reikokuna snapped awake, accidentally transforming in his panic. He rapidly switched forms, struggling to get away from the hands holding him down, until his eyes finally focused and he realized where he was. He relaxed, transforming back into a human and sighing, slouching down. "Kid, what the hell was that?" he asked.

"A Leviathan," Reikokuna responded, taking deep breaths. "I read about them in a book of mythical creatures one time; I was not aware of exactly how large it would be."

Sub Nautica turned to Hammerhead. "And what was that? Why'd you save the kid?"

"I don't like death," she responded, then looked into his eyes, a toothy grin on her face. "Not when I'm not killing them, that is." He glared at the villain, then looked in confusion as she started to cough. "Damn it," she muttered, "I need to get back in the water."

"Yeah right, why would I let that happen?"

"I can't breathe if my gills dry out, and I get eczema in the sunlight," she responded. "You wouldn't want someone to die on your watch, would you?"

He turned around, muttering to himself. He punched a tree a few times, then sighed, turning back to her. "I'll get a hose." He left, and Hammerhead tried to stand up, but a powerful hand forced her had to the ground. Reikokuna towered over her, left arm still bleeding heavily. He transformed into a starfish and pulled his arm off, just as he had done in the Sports Festival, then returned to human form once it grew back.

"Make a move, and I will snap your head in two," he growled, rage in his eyes. Hammerhead gulped, nodding, and the young hero walked a short distance away from her, transforming into a bear and laying down, piercing yellow eyes trained on her. Several minutes passed, then he heard a helicopter overhead, and transformed back into a human as Sub Nautica emerged from the brush with a team of Coast Guard soldiers, guns drawn.

"Take her to the shore," a voice said behind the sailors, and they parted as a tall man stepped forward. He had the head of a seal and had a set of goggles on his forehead. As the soldiers dragged Hammerhead to the waiting boat, Sub Nautica greeted the officer with a firm handshake.

"Good to see you again, Lieutenant Selkie!" he said, patting him on the back. Selkie grinned and nodded down to his shoulder. A gold star, with four gold bars under it, shone in the sun. Sub Nautica's eyes went wide. "CAPTAIN!? You? Haha! How the hell'd ya manage that? It's only been a year and a half since I last saw you!"

"I've been working like mad," Selkie said, chuckling. "That little dispute with China certainly helped."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that! This old body of mine got shipped to Beijing to help suppress those drug lords' goons; what did they make you do?"

"I led a strike team that infiltrated their yacht." He rolled back his sleeve, and Reikokuna saw a jagged scar slithering its way up his left forearm. "Bastards got me with a speargun, but there's nothing that can stop me!" His eyes wandered over to Reikokuna, who bowed politely. "Captain Selkie, Japanese Coast Guard," he said, extending his hand.

"Beorn, intern under Sub Nautica," he responded, feeling Selkie's firm grip and squeezing his fist tighter. Selkie noticed and grinned, a vein on his wrist pulsing as he gripped harder. Reikokuna transformed into his gorilla form, his massive fist nearly crushing Selkie's hand. He tapped out on Reikokuna's arm, and he turned back to a human as Selkie laughed.

"Strong grip you got there, kid! What's this old geezer got you doing, anyway?" he asked, jabbing a thumb towards Sub Nautica. "He makin' you do all the chores he claims he's too old to do?"

"Alright listen here you overgrown dachshund," Sub Nautica interjected, a smug grin on his face. "Just because I don't like doing paperwork doesn't mean I'm too old to do it! I'm only 64 for cryin' out loud!"

"He had been a phenomenal mentor to me," Reikokuna said to Selkie, ignoring the older hero. "Even though I only arrived this morning, I feel that I have learned a lot about a hero's duty from him, and I fully expect nothing less for the rest of this week."

"… You a rich boy or something?" Selkie asked after a short pause. "I don't know anyone else who would talk that properly."

"My father owns the oil company that rig out there belongs to," he said, pointing to the platform silhouetted by the setting sun. "I am not sure if my internship here was entirely coincidental, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to help out my father's company."

Selkie nodded, then bid farewell and left to the boat. As it disappeared over the waves, Sub Nautica and Beorn dove into the surf, racing back to the docks. They passed by a ferry, and Reikokuna pointed his fin at it, a questioning look in his eye. Sub Nautica smiled and nodded, and Reikokuna transformed, rushing to the surface.

On board the ferry, a little boy was resting his head against the railing, bored. He held out a little toy whale, pretending it was splashing through the waves after the boat. A massive rush of water just past the toy caught his eye, and he watched in awe as a blue whale, a hundred feet long, broke through the surface, breaching the waves as it soared into the air, then crashed back down, soaking the entire boat in a massive wave as the boy laughed and cheered, passengers pulling out their phones to film the massive creature. Reikokuna splashed along beside the boat for a few minutes, then dove back down and turned to the docks.

* * *

The next few days were rather uneventful. Sub Nautica typically didn't work on fighting villains and stopping crime (though he refused to admit it, his age was beginning to slow him down); he preferred to fix things around the harbor, deep down where the water was pitch black and freezing cold. Since he was one of the only people in Japan that could do that kind of deep-sea work, he was in high demand, and Reikokuna enjoyed the hard tasks assigned to them. On the Thursday of that week, Reikokuna found himself almost 1,000 meters under the surface of the ocean, 38 miles off the coast of Kamisu, a city a few miles to the east of Tokyo. He and the grizzled hero were trying to repair a rusted undersea broadcasting cable that had been causing lots of problems with overseas communication. Reikokuna, as a giant squid, could manipulate the heavy, three-foot thick cable much better than Sub Nautica could have on his own, and as Sub Nautica made the final weld in the cable, he aimed his flashlight to the surface and bobbed it up and down. That was the signal for them to ascend, and as they got to shallower waters, Reikokuna felt a sharp pressure change in the water, and something lit up the cloudy sky hundreds of meters above them.

The temperature rose, and as he and Sub Nautica looked around in confusion, a powerful shockwave struck the duo, the water boiling and churning as the slug of nearly solid water hit them like a punch from All Might. The water rushed back the opposite way, and Reikokuna turned into a sailfish and powered through the water away from the suction, Sub Nautica just in front of him. As the two finally made it to the surface, Reikokuna felt his skin heat up. He transformed into a human and, seeing the look of horror on Sub Nautica's face, turned around. A massive, instantly identifiable mushroom cloud towered above them, about 15 miles away from the coast. The sky was swimming with all the colors, the cloud broiling and writhing as purple and orange tendrils shot into the atmosphere, rolling across the sky.

"…What the hell…" Sub Nautica pulled out his radio and called the Coast Guard. "Selkie! Are you seeing this!?"

"Yeah! We felt it too!" a voice called from the radio. "What the hell happened?"

"That looks nuclear!" Reikokuna exclaimed. "Are we under attack?"

"I don't think so," the radio said, "if we were, they wouldn't have missed the land by that much. I think that was a villain's doing."

Another voice crackled to life on the radio. "Captain Selkie!" a familiar voice called.

"All Might?" Selkie responded. "What's going on?"

"A villain with the power to control radioactivity attacked us. She formed a supercritical mass that would have annihilated the city, but she was stopped. A team of heroes managed to get the mass away from the city before it detonated. We need all the help we can over here! The shockwave caused a lot of damage to the city!"

"Then there is no time to lose," Reikokuna said. "We are heroes; it is our job to help those in need." He transformed back into a sailfish and took off, aiming to go around the churning cloud. Sub Nautica sighed, rubbing his forehead, before diving down and following his young ward. All through the day and into the night, thousands of first responders and heroes worked, saving people trapped under collapsed buildings and bridges, fighting fires, coordinating evacuation routes and emergency shelters, and clearing the debris from the roads.

At around 1:30 the following morning, Reikokuna and Sub Nautica were finally finished, and were sent back home. During the three-hour long train ride back home, Reikokuna tried to sleep, but he couldn't. Sub Nautica had decided to end the internship there, telling him to go home and rest over the weekend. When he finally arrived at his house, he just walked in and collapsed on the sofa, utterly exhausted, physically and mentally. He didn't wake until the following morning, Saturday, and even then, he didn't feel like moving at all, having to make an effort to go outside to his mother's lavish garden and sit in nature. His friends had been texting him all day asking about his internship, and he had simply told them it went fine. He felt bad lying to them, but he didn't want them to worry.

* * *

The following Monday, Reikokuna was sitting in his seat, the first one in the room as always. More of his classmates showed up, talking about their internships, but he noticed Toschi wasn't among them. Usually, he was the second or third person to arrive, but his desk was empty that morning. Shizuka and Kalantari showed up, the former with a strong tan and the latter seeming slightly more bronze than he usually did.

"Got some sun out there in Kuwait, Shizuka?" Akijaso called, and she chuckled, nervously rubbing her arm.

"It was a lot hotter than I expected," she said, pulling out her phone and opening the camera roll. "Kalantari was dressed for the heat." She showed her friend a photo of the two of them standing in front of what appeared to be a palace. Shizuka was wearing a teal skinsuit with a purple and orange miniskirt and corset outside that framed her curvy figure (nicely, Akijaso thought to himself) and had a black domino mask and high heels. She was smiling, but it seemed forced and she looked like she was trying hard not to sweat. Kalantari, on the other hand, looked like a genie: he had a gold-threaded sirwal and slippers, and a shiny golden belt sat around his hips, a large ruby set in the buckle. A dark blue turban was wrapped around his head and fastened with a large sapphire brooch in the front. He had golden wrist gauntlets with various gems inset in them, and he looked as though he had started growing a small goatee on the trip, although he was shaved now. "See that palace we're in front of?" she asked Akijaso. "That's his FUCKING HOUSE. HE LIVES IN A PALACE. IT HAD GOLD FLOORS AND EVERYTHING."

"God damn," Akijaso said, looking over to his friend and shaking his shoulder. "You never told us you were a rich boy!"

"I didn't want you to treat me any differently just because of my socioeconomic status," the bronze teen said, and Akijaso sat back, smirking.

"No, we treat you differently because you say shit like 'my socioeconomic status'."

Reikokuna barely heard them, his eyes still focused on the empty desk. His eyebrows furrowed as he thought. _Where could he be? It is unlike him to be this late for class. All Might's agency is in Tokyo, perhaps I should have gone to see him during the- _His eyes widened as he realized something. _He was in Tokyo that day. The villain attack was in Tokyo; they said the villain died at the scene; the team of heroes diverted the bomb over the ocean; oh God, does this mean…_

Midnight stood up, facing the class. "Everyone, I have some bad news," she said. She sighed, then threw a desolate look to the empty desk. "Toschi Hatsume has quit the hero program."


	10. Chapter 9: Internships: Kinetica

Chapter 9: Internships: Kinetica

Toschi gawked before the enormous tower, staring up at the large planet sculpture on the roof hundreds of feet above him. Ayabuska nudged his arm, grinning, and tilted her head in the direction of the door. The two of them, plus the second-year winner, stepped through the glass entryway and were greeted by a secretary.

"Welcome! You three are the interns, I presume? Please change into your hero costumes in the respective locker rooms and head to the top floor. All Might will be waiting for you there."

Ayabuska left to the female locker room, and Toschi and the other student went to the male locker room. As Toschi slipped his chest plate on, the student held out his hand.

"Rashido Kasabaki," he said, and Toschi returned the gesture.

"Toschi Hatsume. You nervous?"

"A little," he said as he pulled his hood over his head. His costume consisted of loose, baggy pants and an oversized sleeveless hoodie, and Toschi saw a thin armored tank top under it. "We're going to be working with All Might and his sidekick, Sir Nighteye. It's gonna be a bit stressful making a good impression, especially Nighteye. I hear he's really stern and intimidating."

"Yeah, it's gonna be a tough week trying to keep up with those two. I think Nighteye doesn't go do all the fighting, he helps with the logistic aspect of the agency and directs All Might to trouble."

The two left the locker room, chatting casually, and entered the elevator. When the doors opened, they were greeted by Ayabuska, and Toschi held back a laugh as Kasabaki slapped a hand over his nose to keep it from bleeding. She laughed and spun around, showing off her costume. The third-year's costume consisted of a red, skin-tight leotard and boots. It framed her curvy body snugly and had white lines crossing over her arms, down her chest, and along the sides of her legs. A white cape flowed down her back and down to her ankles, and she wore a set of goggles on her forehead. Two rocket nozzles extended out of her elbows, and Toschi saw another one on the sole of her upturned boot.

"What do you think, boys?~" she teased, strutting between them. "I had it made out of a fireproof carbon-nylon fiber alloy that's nearly tear-proof. It's water resistant, and it can survive in outer space. Have you ever been to space? It's great, you'd love it."

A large door opened behind them, and a booming voice filled their brains.

"I AM HERE… TO BEGIN THE INTERNSHIPS!"

The three turned and gasped. All Might stood before them, fists on his hips, a proud smile on his face. "Welcome, young heroes!" he said, spreading his arms wide. "I trust that you all are excited for your internships here? Now, before we begin, I would like you to introduce yourselves and your Quirks. I have a general understanding, but for us to work together it is important that we all know each other's limits so that we can overcome them together. Young lady, how about you go first?"

"I'm Delta Vee," Ayabuska said, stepping forward. "My Quirk is Rocket: it gives me rocket thrusters on my feet and elbows. My body turns the food I eat into a type of rocket fuel, and I can ignite it to fly and deliver extremely powerful punches. I can fly at over five times the speed of sound, and I can separate oxygen from my fuel so that I can breathe at high altitudes. My costume is made of a special material that allows my rockets to adjust my body temperature, and all of that allows me to travel through outer space."

"A phenomenal Quirk!" All Might exclaimed. "You have great potential in you, young hero."

Kasabaki introduced himself next. "I'm Gemini, and my Quirk is Morphogenesis. I can transform up to two of any of my body parts into any object. I can create shields, weapons, and even machines and vehicles, and I can move and control the objects I transform my body into, no matter how heavy."

"A powerful Quirk indeed, young hero! A strong combat type, I expect." He turned to Toschi. "And now, the young hero who saved our city.

"I'm Kinetica. My Quirk is Stasis, and it allows me to lock any object in position for a time relative to its mass. Any force applied to it while it is locked will be converted into kinetic energy when it is released, but higher concentrations of kinetic energy are harder for me to safely control."

"Excellent," All Might said, placing his hands on their shoulders. "All three of you have very powerful Quirks. You all have the potential to do great things. Now, let's begin. Sir Nighteye has been finding trouble throughout the city for you all to fight. You three will work together to defeat criminals. Fear not, they should not be a problem for the strong students you are, but if you encounter anything too dangerous, either Sir Nighteye or I will come to help. We want you three to do this all on your own; this is practice for when you are on your own, possibly running your own hero agencies. Good luck young heroes!" He leapt through an open sunroof, disappearing into the sky. The three students gazed at where All Might had departed from, then Delta turned to face the two.

"Alright, since I'm the oldest one here, I will assume to role of leader. Who here is best at combat?" Gemini raised his hand and it became a morning star, a heavy, spiked metal ball attached to a chain. "Alright, you can lead the way into any fights we get into. Kinetica, how good are you with problem solving?"

"I built this costume myself." He pressed a few buttons, and the suit transformed a few times, Delta pouting when she saw the rocket thrusters appear on his elbows.

"Fine, you're kind of a wild card. You can pretty much do anything we need you to. And, since I'm the best in my class, I'll create strategies for us to take on each fight as efficiently and quickly as possible. I'll also distract villains so that you two can take them down."

"How are you going to do that?" Gemini asked, and she smirked, squeezing her arms together in front of her. Brushing past the blushing teens, she pressed the call button for the elevator.

"Let's go see Nighteye and get our assignments."

* * *

An hour later, people screamed as the gang of masked criminals shot their rifles into the air, bursting down the door to the bank. "EVERYONE GET THE FUCK DOWN AND NOBODY GETS HURT!" The lead robber grabbed a child from a screaming mother and pointed his gun at the lone security guard. "If you even think about calling for help, I'll blow this little brat's brains all over the wall! I mean it, my Quirk lets me read minds!" Three of the robbers took off towards the vault, and the other five stayed behind, guns pointed at the hostages. One of the three placed his hand on the vault door, and it shrank, falling to the floor with a quiet _ting_. The biggest one walked in and lifted his shirt. On his belly, a large mouth opened up, and the other two began dumping money and gold into the mouth.

On the roof, Delta Vee landed, smoke trailing from her elbows and knees. She reached to a small earpiece radio. "Kinetica, what's it look like in there?"

"Eight of them, armed with rifles." He was in a building across the street, a video projection streaming from his wrist. It showed a view of the inside of the bank, taken from the security cameras. "Nobody's hurt yet, but they look serious. The leader has a kid in his arm."

"We need to get the people out of there somehow," Gemini said from beside him. His fingers had transformed into thin cables, one hand plugged into Kinetica's suit, and the other snaking down through an electrical box, under the road, and into the security room in the bank. "Should we try to knock out everyone in there with gas or something?"

"Not an option," Delta said. "We don't know what those guy's Quirks are, and if we try something like that they may start shooting."

"One of the guys in the vault has some kind of mouth thing on his stomach, and they're filling it with money." Kinetica zoomed in the video feed. "Another of them shrank the vault door, and the third one is another mutant-type. He's big and scaly, kinda looks like a crocodile."

"Can you tell what any of the others have?"

"Gemini, can you make a drone or something? I have an idea." Gemini closed his eyes, and a chunk of his hair swirled and glowed, quickly forming into a small, spider-like robot. Kinetica held out his palm, and the robot hopped onto it. The nanobots on his hand glowed, and lines of code flowed through the spider's eyes. It hopped off and climbed into the electrical box, slinking through into the bank. Kinetica flipped down his visor, and his vision was filled with the robot's view of the room. His fingertips glowed, and as he moved his hands, the robot moved accordingly. He piloted the drone up to the ceiling, its little legs skittering along as he positioned it over the criminals. It lowered itself on a tiny wire, and snipped a tiny piece of hair from each criminal, putting them into a compartment on its back. After a few seconds, five profiles popped up in Kinetica's visor.

"Yep, one of them can control gases. That rules out that plan."

"Well, we can't go in there," Gemini said, the cables turning back into fingers. "It's too much of a risk to the civilians. We'll have to get them when they come out."

"I agree," Delta said, "My Quirk doesn't work well in an enclosed area like that. Kinetica, you got a plan?"

He was thinking hard, watching the villains reach the last few piles of money in the vault. "Gemini and I will create shields to protect the buildings, and we'll trap them in the crossroads of the street."

Gemini looked over at him, and Delta called in from the radio. "What are you thinking right now?"

"Delta, have you ever heard of a fuel-air explosion?"

Two minutes later, the criminals burst out into the streets, randomly firing their weapons at civilians as they fled. As they ran into the center of the road, two large blue walls burst up in front of them. They looked around in confusion, and two black walls popped up behind them, trapping them in the street. Outside, Kinetica's nanobots had formed the blue walls, and Gemini's hands were the other two. The villains heard what sounded like a sprinkler, and they looked up to see a woman in a red suit flying above them, a brown mist coming from her elbows. They raised their guns to shoot at her, but the mist began burning holes through their rifles as it touched them.

"Rocket fuel is highly corrosive," she explained to the scared criminals. One's hair rose like a cobra's hood, and he spat a stream of venom at Delta Vee, who dodged to the side. Her brows furrowed as she glared at them, and the thrusters on her elbows began to glow. "Improvised Super Move:" she began, then streams of flames shot from her elbows towards the cloud of rocket fuel mist. "Thermobaric Hellburst!"

The flame touched a single droplet of the fuel, and the entire cloud exploded. The sudden combustion of the fuel created a powerful rush of intense heat that released a massive shockwave downward at the villains, flames shooting into the air, narrowly missing Delta Vee. The explosion had the strength of a MOAB, around 18,000 pounds of TNT. Kinetica ducked as part of the wall bowed outward from the force of the blast, barely staying in one piece. A pillar of smoke rose from the middle of the walls, and Gemini transformed the walls back into hands. The criminals were sprawled out on the ground, unconscious. They were covered in burns, and several of them seemed to have broken bones. One of them had sprayed a wall of water at the incoming blast just before it ignited, which probably had saved their lives, taking the brunt of the shockwave and heat.

As police and heroes arrived to secure the scene and take care of the people in the bank, Kinetica felt a pit in his stomach when he saw what had happened to the criminals. His knees gave out, and he fell back, eyes filled with regret and fear. Delta landed next to him, rubbing his back.

"Hey, you good? It's okay, we stopped them."

"I almost killed them…" he muttered, not looking at her. "I didn't think your fuel was that reactive, I thought it would just knock them out, not nearly kill them."

Gemini kneeled down next to him, along with a police officer. "They're all gonna be fine, man, they'll just be in the hospital for a while. Besides, this was the best outcome in this scenario."

"Gemini here told us you made sure to take measures to protect the citizens," the police officer said, "Kinetica, is that it? You did good, if you hadn't thought to create those walls, the blast probably would have leveled the block."

"The police are gonna take over everything from here, Kinetica," Delta said, helping him stand. "Let's go back to the agency and make our report, and head out again. He nodded, and Gemini began to transform his legs, the light folding around him into a red convertible. Kinetica climbed in, and Delta blasted off, Gemini following as they made their way back to Nighteye. Kinetica was silent for a few minutes, before finally speaking.

"I gotta come up with less dangerous plans," he said, and Gemini laughed.

"Nah, that was fun! Let's do that some more!"

* * *

Three days later, on Thursday, the trio were out early in the morning. After spending the previous day helping All Might, they were going back out solo again. Over the past four days, they had stopped almost 30 crimes across the city, each one of them having their own difficulties. Kinetica was still a bit shaken from their first fight, letting the other two come up with the plans. Gemini had gotten food poisoning the second day from a villain's Quirk, and Delta Vee had been groped by some creepy guy, whom Kinetica and Gemini had to rescue from her before she dragged him into deep space.

That morning, they had separated a few small scuffles when they received a call from Sir Nighteye informing them of a suspected fight in the downtown area. As the three arrived at the location of the suspected fight, they saw a short woman yelling at the people around her. She was incredibly skinny, to the point where she looked more like a skeleton than a human. Her hair was thin and glowing green like her eyes, which were hollow and sunken. Before the three could ask her what the problem was, she held her hands out to the person she was arguing with. Instantly, the person collapsed, vomiting up blood as his skin began to glow a deathly green, open sores forming on his face. As people screamed and ran, she pointed her hands at more people, dozens of civilians dropping. The heroes burst into action, Delta trying to take the villain's attention away from the people as Gemini and Kinetica raced to help the injured. As Kinetica got close to the first victim, a message appeared in his visor.

**WARNING: HIGH RADIATION DETECTED**

"Be careful!" he yelled to Gemini. "She gave them radiation poisoning!" Just from being in the area, he began to feel a metallic taste at the back of his throat, and his head began to feel like it was full of lead. His suit morphed up around his face, forming a gas mask, and he breathed deep, feeling the radiation slowly leave his system. Gemini transformed his nose into a gas mask, doing the same, then turned his arm into a stretcher. They began carrying civilians away from the woman, who was now trying to get Delta. Several police cars arrived, and they began moving victims so that Gemini and Kinetica could go and fight. Suddenly, Delta crashed into the wall above them, and she would have slammed into the ground if it weren't for Kinetica freezing her just before she hit the ground, and Gemini turned his foot into a cushion when he unfroze her. She landed softly and immediately got back up again, Kinetica and Gemini following her as she blasted back towards the woman.

Gemini turned his left arm into a large lead shield, blocking irradiated objects the villain threw at them, and turned his right hand into a morning star. He swung it around his head and launched it at the villain, who narrowly dodged the beach ball-sized weapon. She leapt towards him, but froze in mid-air, glowing yellow. Kinetica was standing behind her, arm outstretched. Delta dove down and blasted across the street, her arm pulled back. Just as she passed the villain, she rocketed her arm forward, slamming her fist into the villain, and Kinetica released her.

She flew back, crashing along the ground as she rolled across the city, slamming to a halt against a fire hydrant. The heroes rushed towards her, and she screamed, face contorted in rage. She placed her hands on the ground and pulled them up, a glowing ball appearing between her hands. Kinetica's visor sounded a warning, and his eyes widened.

"That thing's a critical mass!" he yelled, rushing towards her. "It could go nuclear!" Delta's eyes went wide, and Gemini stumbled for a second.

"You mean that thing's a nuke!?" he yelled.

"It could become one if it gets any larger!" The villain raised her hands above her head, the ball glowing a terrifying blue, the air smelling of ozone.

"I will do it!" she screamed at the heroes. "Stop right there or I'll kill us all!" They slowed down, circling around her as she glared at them, hair whipping around.

"Why are you doing this?" Delta Vee asked. "Why are you hurting these people?"

"All those bastards think they're better than me!" she screamed. "All you people going around showing off your Quirks! I hate it! Why do you get to do what you want, but I can't!?"

"We got a psychopath," Gemini muttered to Kinetica. The villain screamed in rage and flung her arms down, the ball hurtling to the ground. A bright yellow flash filled everyone's eyes, and they heard Kinetica and the villain screaming.

Kinetica had his hands outstretched, yellow tendrils of energy lashing out from his body as he yelled. The ball had been frozen at the moment it detonated; Kinetica was literally holding back a nuclear explosion. A powerful wind swirled around him as veins of yellow energy fissured through the ground. The villain shrieked as the yellow tendrils lashed around her, her legs trapped in the middle of the explosion. Her skin began to crack and decay, and as the horrified heroes watched, she screamed as her skin crumbled, turning to a black dust. Her terrified expression haunted their minds as her skin began to melt off her face, her body disintegrating until it was nothing but a pile of charred, shattered bones and flesh.

Kinetica sweated through the effort of containing the energy of the explosion. The energy was beginning to leak out, and the tendrils were thrashing through the air and across the ground, tearing through everything they touched.

"Delta Vee! Go get All Might!" he yelled. "I can't hold this forever! Gemini, start evacuating people! If I lose control of this, it'll explode and vaporize the city and everyone in it!"

"We're not leaving you alone!" Delta screamed. "You'll die!"

"We're a team, Kinetica!" Gemini called from behind his shield. "It's all of us, or none of us!"

A shadow fell from above them. "I AM HERE… TO HELP!" All Might announced, landing next to Kinetica. One of the tendrils whipped at him, and he crossed his arms.

"CAROLINA SMASH!" he yelled, flinging his arms forwards. The tendril was knocked back, but swung around and slammed into All Might's knee, knocking him down.  
"All Might!" Kinetica yelled to the hero, who was standing back up. "I'm holding in the energy of a nuclear bomb! You need to get everyone out of the city before it's too late!"

"Where is the villain?" All might called through the wind. Kinetica closed his eyes, gritting his teeth.

"She died! I accidentally killed her!"

"It's okay, young Kinetica! It is unavoidable in the hero industry!" All Might pushed through the energy, grunting as it slammed into him over and over. He made his way to Kinetica's side, and looked over at his chest plate. "Can you make that costume of yours create some sort of shield around the explosion?"

"Press the first, ninth, seventeenth, eleventh, and the fifth buttons, in that order!" he yelled. All Might typed in the combination, and the nanobots rushed down Kinetica's arms and swirled around the globe of death, forming a case around it. Glowing yellow lines crossed the orb, pulsing brightly. Kinetica relaxed his hands slightly. "That should help contain it, but I don't know for how long! We need to get this out of the city!"

"Can you even move it?" Delta called. "I thought your Quirk locked it in place!"

"If we use enough force, combined with the restraining shield, we might be able to move it, but it'll take a lot of strength for me to contain the energy!"

"We have to try! Come on!" Gemini yelled, and he jumped onto All Might's back, wrapping his legs around his waist. He stretched his arms out to the side, and they formed into a set of plane wings. "Delta! Give us some boost!" She flew over and grabbed onto a set of handles on Gemini's back, grunting as her boosters went into overdrive. All Might grabbed onto Kinetica, and slowly, the group began to lift off. They quickly began to accelerate, flying faster and faster.

"Delta! Aim us for the ocean!" Kinetica yelled. "Hurry! My arms are going numb!" Delta closed her eyes, then opened them as small holes opened up near her foot thrusters. Excess fuel began leaking out, and ignited on contact with the hot flames, producing a loud explosion as it jerked the group forwards, nearing the speed of sound. The orb began to grow brighter as Kinetica's eyes drooped, and Gemini leaned his head down.

"All Might! Start hitting the orb in the direction of the open ocean! Kinetica, just hold out a few more seconds!" A flurry of blows rained down on the orb, and Kinetica's head fell. The orb shot off like a bullet, and Gemini turned sharply, aiming them back at the mainland. "We've got a few seconds before it blows! Cover your eyes!"

Delta's thrusters sputtered and slowly died, her body starved of fuel. All Might reached his arm back and caught her as she nearly slid off Gemini's wings, exhausted. He wrapped all of them in his arms and braced himself, then the world turned white. All Might felt the blood in his back begin to boil, and a massive shockwave struck him, the sound nearly tearing his eardrums as he was flung down into Kamisu, a coastal city east of Tokyo. He threw one arm out, digging it through the side of a building to slow himself down before crashing into the ground, nearly getting blown away by the rush of wind from the blast.

Kinetica lifted his head, vision swimming, ears ringing, trying to take in his surroundings. On the horizon, he saw a terrifying pillar of fire, a rolling, seemingly living cloud of destruction rising through the stratosphere. Bright orange and purple flashes dotted the surface of the cloud, a deep, loud rumble shaking his brain. A powerful wind, smelling of seawater and ozone, washed over him. Windows were breaking all around him, and he heard screams and cries of pain and terror from every direction. The sound and smell of destruction filled his head, his mind racing as he began to panic. An image flickered in his vision: the agonized screech permanently frozen onto the villain's face, flames bursting from her eye sockets as her skin boiled and blistered, sloughing off of her bones as they charred and crumbled, like a log in a fireplace. He saw himself standing there, unable to help as she died an excruciating death, doing nothing.

He screamed, clutching his head, trying to shake the images from his brain, the villains final shriek echoing through his head, threatening to shatter his skull. Yellow energy burst from him, the ground under him cracking and crumbling as it flickered between being frozen and unfrozen, each wave of power building up more kinetic energy in the street.

"Kinetica! You need to calm down!" Delta Vee's voice broke through the wall of noise, dim and muted behind the rushing in his head. He felt his head pounding along with his heartbeat, his body going numb as his power overflowed. He felt a suffocating pressure wrap around his body, and everything stopped. A dull ringing was left in his head as he collapsed, sweat dripping down his face and stinging his eyes. A grey coil of fabric was wrapped around him, leading into the hands of a dark-haired man with glowing red eyes, hair standing on end. He blinked, and the glow disappeared as his hair fell back down, his face tired and unkempt. The coils retracted as Delta and Gemini rushed to him, while All Might walked over to the tired man.

"Eraserhead, we sure are lucky you showed up!" Eraserhead glanced to the collapsed teen, then his eyes flitted over to All Might's.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," he said as he turned to leave. "That kid needs to learn to control his power, or he'll never be a hero."

"Wait a minute! We will need your help here! The city has been damaged, and civilians are certainly in trouble. We as heroes must give them hope for survival and the future!"

"… Very well. I'll go alert the police from the neighboring prefectures. They can help more than I can in this situation." As he headed off, All Might turned to Kinetica.

"You performed excellent, young Hatsume! I wish I had your courage and determination when I was your age! You shall turn into a fine he-"

"Shut up," Kinetica growled. He sat up, callously brushing away the hands of his friends. "How the hell can I be a hero?"

"Kinetica, what are you talking about?" Delta asked, but he cut her off.

"I killed someone! All I've done this week is hurt people! My plan nearly killed those bank robbers, all we've done is beat people up, and then I just killed that person! I could have stopped her before she blew it up! I could have saved her!" A tear rolled down his cheek as his voice shook. "I'm no better than the villains I'm supposed to stop!"

"Kinetica," All Might said, placing his hands on the teen's heaving shoulders, "Every great hero has done things they regret. I watched my master die right in front of me when I was a little older than you, because I wasn't strong enough. I have worked hard for many years to become the Symbol of Peace, I have given up nearly everything to give the country; no, the WORLD, the hope it needs to keep on going every single day, to give the people a reason to get up in the morning when everything seems bleak. You have the potential to become a great Symbol like me."

"I wanted to become a hero so that people wouldn't have to get hurt," he said, pushing All Might's hands off of his shoulders, "I wanted to become a hero that keeps everyone safe. I've become what I wanted to stop; I have to stop myself. If I keep going like this, I'm going to end up hurting those close to me. I can never let that happen." He turned and walked from the heroes, head down. Delta started after him, but Gemini held out his arm, stopping her.

"There's no point," he said, watching his friend depart. "He's already made up his mind. He wants to stop people from getting hurt; if he thinks that he's the reason people are getting hurt, then he will become the hero he dreamed of by stopping himself."

* * *

For the next few weeks, Toschi didn't go to school. He stayed at home in either his room or the garage, withdrawn from everyone. Several times, his classmates had dropped by to check in on him, but he always made an excuse not to see them. More often than not, he was making the excuses for himself, feeling a heavy pressure in his heart whenever he thought of his friends. Several times, he had found himself regretting dropping out of the hero program, but each time, he had looked over to his workbench, where his broken visor sat. Seeing his reflection in it reminded him of why he chose to leave, and steeled his resolve.

After about a month, he arrived back at school. He had been visited by the teacher of the Support course, Power Loader. He had been impressed with Toschi's ingenuity ever since he first saw his self-made costume at the Sports Festival, and wanted him in the Support course. Toschi had accepted the offer on the condition that he would stay in his homeroom class; when they went out for their hero training classes, he would go to the workshop and join the Support students.

His first day back, he opened the door to the classroom and was immediately ensnared in a tough web.

"He's here!" Omakase yelled, pulling his friend into a tight embrace. "He's back!" His classmates surrounded him, peppering him with questions and telling him all the stuff he had missed out on. Sasaki wrapped his arms around the entire class, lifting all of them in a massive group hug, until Midnight, getting annoyed with all the noise, cracked her whip on the chalkboard. Five seconds later, everyone was in their seats, mouths tightly shut.

"Now, I know you're all excited that Hatsume has rejoined us," Midnight said, pacing in front of them, "But keep in mind that he is still a month behind you in your studies. He will need to focus hard to keep up with you all. That being said…" She faced Toschi, a warm smile on her face. "Welcome home."

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Wow, heavy stuff for Toschi, huh? That'd scar me too. Anyway, I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter and the previous one, I had a bit of writer's block. Next up, we'll travel forward in time to Class 1-B's (3-B's) graduation, two years later. We'll explore his life after school, and how he first met Melissa Shield (in this AU, she's around 23-24 in the current timeline). See you soon, and, as always, I hope you enjoy!**


	11. Chapter 10: Graduation

Chapter 10: Graduation

_Two and a half years later…_

The day before graduation: the most exciting day of class 3-B's lives. They didn't have classes that day, so all of the third years in U.A. were celebrating at the beach. There were people cooking at various barbeques and grills, playing volleyball, swimming, sunbathing, and generally having fun. About 50 yards offshore, Toschi raced across the water on his home-made jet ski, giving his friends rides. A beeper on his watch went off, and he slowed down, turning and accelerating towards the massive, 300-foot yacht a couple hundred yards away. Reikokuna's father had let the students party on his yacht as long as they didn't break it, and they were taking full advantage of it.

Riding the waves, Toschi laughed as Omakase leapt from the back seat, a web attached to the rear of the craft. A silk parachute billowed out behind him, and he soared into the air, whooping in excitement. As they approached the yacht, Omakase cut the line, riding the wind down to the helipad on the rear. Toschi glanced all around him and spied what he was looking for. He ramped off the large wave, backflipping through the air as he pressed a button on his watch. The jet ski began to fold in midair, compressing and disassembling itself, forming into a backpack that Toschi slipped over his shoulders as he landed on the deck of the boat to the cheers of his classmates, rolling to a halt.

* * *

In the two years after he left the hero program, Toschi had quickly rose above all of Power Loader's other students, not in the quantity of inventions he created, but in the sheer brilliance they exuded. The portable jet ski he made was only the third project he had built in his final year, and his eighth in total, including his suit. His suit, along with all of the nanobots in it, had been destroyed after the cataclysmic battle against the nuclear villain, and all that remained was his broken visor. He had rebuilt it into a set of goggles that he wore on his forehead at all times, giving him a steampunk-esque vibe. He had upset all odds and became the first student outside of the hero course to win the Sports Festival, winning in both his second and third years, one of only a few students to ever go undefeated. Despite not being a hero anymore, he had continued to train on his own, honing his Quirk to the point of being able to virtually sweep the floor with an opponent before they even realized he had done anything.

* * *

Sasaki and Shikora came out of the galley, brandishing food galore. Sasaki had his massive arms filled with all sorts of delicacies, and Shikora levitated over an entire table full of food. Over the summer of her second year, Shikora had discovered that her Quirk allowed her to control and manipulate not the paper itself, but the wood it was made of. With lots of practice, she expanded her abilities to give herself control over wooden objects up to the size of a car, able to manipulate its shape and density, just as she could with paper.

* * *

Of all the students, Sasaki, Moki, and Reikokuna had proven themselves to be the most powerful heroes in the school. Sasaki had grown larger, standing an impressive 7'2", his arms and legs thicker than a trash can. His hands were so large he could palm a bus, and his strength had erupted like his lava, setting a school record in the deadlift, at over 2,200 pounds. He had broken numerous records in strength across the country, and was ranked second only to All Might in terms of sheer brute force. He had nearly died earlier in the year while on vacation: a citizen had injected himself with a strange black needle (later identified as a drug called "Trigger") and had gone on a rampage, nearly destroying a town with a Quirk called "Sulfur". Sasaki managed to lead him into an old quarry, where he could use his Quirk to the fullest, and in an act of desperation to stop him, forced the villain to fill a neglected pond with pure sulfur. He drank from the sulfur pond, getting violently ill, but it was enough to win the fight: lava with a high sulfur concentration burns bright blue, and is incredibly hot and toxic. After a short stay at a local hospital, he received a thank-you grant from the town, an amount of over 200,000 yen.

Moki hadn't grown much, so she was still shorter than most first-year students, but from interning with Edgeshot, her reflexes had gotten so sharp and accurate that she could nearly predict her opponents' moves before they had even thought about it. She could comfortably fly at almost 300 miles per hour, nearly reaching 400 in a dive. Her father had continued to refine her talon sheaths, making them lighter, stronger, and sharper, and her legendary Hayabusa Blades had become so insanely sharp that the students began to joke that they could remove your hand from eight feet away; that just looking at them would slice your eyes out. Her greatest accomplishment was defeating a psychotic villain who broke into the U.S. Army base on Okinawa and took over their weapon systems. In an incredibly brave multinational operation, she flew in, evading numerous missiles and bullets fired her way, and finally, as the villain hijacked a tank and began trying to attack the city, donned the Hayabusa Blades, slicing the tank clean in half and narrowly missing the villain, who was sent to America for sentencing. For her efforts in the recovery of the base, she received a medal of valor from the President of the United States, the first Japanese hero to earn an award from a foreign country.

Reikokuna had always been one of the most powerful students, due to the versatility of his Quirk, but after three years of intense training, he had become nearly as formidable as Endeavor. He could hold his super forms, Dragon and Leviathan, for up to fifteen minutes at a time, and could recover from the effort in just under a minute. When he made his licensed hero debut in his second year, he used his Leviathan form to rescue a sinking cruise ship off the coast, saving almost 500 lives. He had gone on to become a "hero of the people", appearing at charity events, performing community service, and saving dozens of lives each week. His popularity exploded when he saved Japan from a terrorist attack: villains had hijacked a commercial airliner and were aiming to destroy the capitol in Tokyo, until Reikokuna, who was aboard the plane, took out the hijackers, transforming into a snake and injecting the villains with a paralyzing venom, taking back the controls of the plane until the pilots recovered enough to land safely.

* * *

As the students chowed down on the gourmet food (prepared by Kalantari, Kimura, and Shizuka), they heard a deep wailing sound from the water. Reikokuna dropped his soba and dashed to the railing. Looking down, he saw a pod of whales frolicking below the boat, calling to each other.

"Would you all like to go swim with these whales?" he asked his friends. "I can go ask them if it is alright with them." Wincing at the volume of the resounding _YES_from his friends, he dove off the boat, sinking into the water and transforming. Most of the students, already clad in bathing suits, leapt off the side of the boat, but Moki stayed behind, on account of her inability to swim properly when her feathers got wet (whenever her friends teased her about it, she would remind them that she was not in fact a pelican). Takeyama, wearing a custom bikini, leapt into the air and grew to her full height, landing in the water with a massive splash, soaking the boat and, as a result, Moki, who cursed at her, trying to shake the saltwater from her feathers (they got all clumpy and crusty when they got dirty).

The students spent the next hour or so playing with the whales, watching them leap out of the surf and swim around, Reikokuna acting as a sort of translator between the two species. After a while, Takeyama made a bet with Reikokuna that she could swim to the bottom of the sea before him (when she's big, she can withstand a pressure directly proportional to her own mass, similar to how a blue whale can dive to almost 4,000 feet). Reikokuna promptly transformed into a squid, shooting off through the abyss as the giantess chased him. Because they weren't very far out, the bottom was only about 2,000 feet down (still quite deep, but much shallower than Reikokuna had dived before), and the two returned after just over three minutes, Takeyama bursting out of the water and shrinking back down as she landed on the boat.

"Victory is mine!" she cheered, taunting Reikokuna, who had arrived seconds after her.

"That is only because you cheated, Takeyama. You nearly tore my tentacles off pulling me back."

"They would have grown back, relax!"

"That takes time, and it hurts very much."

"Wah wah, cry me a river. I go through tough stuff every day, quit whining. I got hairspray in my eye during my internship."

"Yu," Moki said, pulling her friend away from the teen, who was angrily gritting his teeth at her, "first of all, he nearly got his arm eaten by a shark in his internship and got powerslammed into the ground by Toschi in our first year, and second, this is his boat. Do you really want to give up all this?" She gestured around their surroundings, gold-accented marble and mahogany all around them, the jacuzzi where Sasaki was currently reclining, the dozens of sunbathing chairs, and all the other "rich person stuff", as described by Takeyama herself earlier in the morning. Yu rolled her eyes and laid down on one of the sunbathing chairs, slipping a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. Moki hopped over to the hot tub and jumped in, splashing Sasaki as she cuddled up next to him, closing her eyes.

"Hey Hatsume!" Netsuke called from one of the sunbathing chairs, the pink-haired teen looking up from a workbench. "Come on over here and have fun with us!"

"Yeah, lying in the sun seems so fun," he joked. "If I wanted my skin to change color, I'd just freeze myself in place. Give me a nice yellow complexion."

"Come on man, you've been working for, like, two hours!" Kushiro called. "This is supposed to be a fun day, not a school day! The only fun thing you've done is take us out on your jet ski!"

"And you're lucky I didn't charge you guys! I have to make sure this is in perfect order when I show it to Professor Shield." Toschi had spent his internships in his second and third years at the I-Island Academy, under the tutelage of one Professor David Shield. He had been recommended by All Might himself, evidently a close friend of Shield's. He had already gotten a few patents on his inventions, and he was going to work at the Research and Development lab on I-Island for a few years after he graduated.

"If it was okay after Sasaki fit his fat ass on that thing, it's fine!" Akijaso joked, earning a splash from the massive teen. "Just get over here and have fun!"

Toschi made the last few adjustments to the jet ski before standing up and stretching, his friends wincing slightly as they saw the scars. During the nuclear villain incident, when his Quirk had gone haywire from trying to restrain the nuclear explosion, he later found out it had physically torn through his nervous system and burst out his skin, leaving deep, red scars all across his arms and back. They had seen them before, but they still felt uneasy seeing them, imagining the pain he felt during those twenty minutes he had held out. He had developed a few nervous habits since the fight; he would occasionally have serious mood swings when under stress, he was constantly adjusting and readjusting his inventions, thinking they weren't good enough, and even creating a new invention took him a long time, the design phase easily taking up to three months for something simple. Before, if he wanted to build something, he just built it, willing to risk it breaking if something went wrong, but now he would spend more time making sure it was completely safe than he would actually building it.

It annoyed Power Loader how long it took him to make progress, but he did have to admit just how incredible and perfect his inventions were. His magnum opus, his greatest invention, were his goggles. They were equipped with a complex array of sensors and scanners that enabled him to see in thermal vision, night vision, infrared vision, and x-ray vision; he could get a full identification and medical database of anyone he scanned, and they were powered by a miniature nuclear battery with a life of over 26 years before it needed to be replaced. His invention, which he had developed over a period of nine months with the help of Professor Shield, was set to be released later that summer for police departments and the military to use. It had given him enough money to purchase a workshop in Kyoto and fill it with all of the tools and materials he ever wanted. He had invited his friends over for its "opening ceremony", and even David Shield came to visit.

"What do you guys want to do?" Toschi asked, pulling a shirt over his head and sitting down in a nearby chair. "Because it seems like you all would rather sleep in the sun."

"How about we go to shore and hang out with the others?" Sasaki suggested. "We haven't seen them all day, and it's almost 5:00."

"They're just going to want to come to the boat," Kurami said, not looking up from his phone. "Why should we mix with those suck-ups?"

"Why should we mix with you?" Shikora retorted, lowering her sunglasses and staring at him with her bright pink eyes. "You're such a stick in the mud, Chirpy."

"Oh, shut up you glorified condom wrapper." The chair he was on wrapped around him, squeezing the breath out of him, his face turning purple. Moki yawned and got out of the hot tub, shaking the water out of her wings.

"How about we all go out somewhere nice for dinner? Sort of like a last meal together." They all looked around at each other, the weight of her statement heavy in the air.

"That sounds great, Moki," Netsuke said, standing up and stretching. "How about we all shower and then head out? We all brought a spare set of fancy clothes with us, and there's showers on the boat. Let's meet back here on deck by 6:30; I know Moki and Shikora take a long time to get ready." The students all grabbed their stuff and departed to the various showers across the boat. Even though there were a lot, there weren't twenty individual showers. There were, however, several group showers. The girls volunteered to take one of them, giving the boys their privacy (because the girls really didn't care about personal space).

* * *

After all of the fighting for showers, it finally ended with four of the guys having to take one of the group showers: Toschi, Sasaki, Kalantari, and Omakase. Each of them took their own corner, but they soon began joking and messing around.

"Hey Sasaki!" Kalantari called. "How are things going between you and Moki?" The tallest and shortest students in the class had begun dating the year before.

"It's great. She's fun to be around, and she's pretty easy to deal with. She's nothing like Takeyama or anyone." He shuddered at the thought of Takeyama. Multiple times, the boys had caught her "accidentally" sneaking into their locker rooms while they were changing, placing hidden cameras in the shower stalls, and just generally being obnoxiously pervy to them. "I swear, that girl's probably spying on us right now." The guys laughed, but it was a nervous laughter. "Anyway, what about you and Shizuka? You two seem to have gotten pretty close. I mean, you take her back to Kuwait every year during the internships."

"Our relationship is rather, how do I put this, _not quite feasible_. We are merely friends, in my eyes. I do not feel any sort of romantic connection between her, and I am not certain she feels anything more than friendship."

Omakase rinsed the last of the shampoo from his hair. "Do you ever think she's only friends with you because she gets a free trip to a palace of luxury and heaven every year?"

"She is not that shallow, unlike a certain blonde female. She didn't even know about my family until she first met them, and even then, she didn't really treat me any differently."

"You know, you've never really told us about your dad," Sasaki said. "Isn't he, like, some top hero or something?"

"In the hero industry, he goes by Hell's Child. He is the top hero in Kuwait, thanks to his Quirk 'Cerberus'. In fact, our entire family lineage, back to when Quirks first started appearing, consists of almost all of the best heroes, and my great-great grandfather was the first professional hero back home."

"So what the hell are you doing here in Japan?" Toschi asked, turning the water off and following the others to the towel rack.

"Well," Kalantari began, stretching his shoulders before grabbing a bottle of special scented oils, which he lathered through his silky black locks as he spoke, "my parents came here on their honeymoon, and met a certain hero, Nana Shimura. She was the top hero in Japan, and my father instantly knew that if his child were to wish to become a hero, he would send them to the best school in Japan. Oh, by the way; Hatsume, any classmates caught your eye?"

"Of course not," Toschi said, rubbing the towel through his hair. "I don't have the time or patience to aimlessly chase after girls who wouldn't even care to give me the time of day; that's Omakase's job."

"Well fuck you too, you sad loner," Omakase said, trying to hide his grin. "At least I'm making an effort."

"Just be yourself," Sasaki clapped his friend on the shoulder, nearly dislocating it, "you're bound to find someone eventually!"

"No offense big guy, but I really don't want to hear that coming from you, you lucky bastard."

"Sasaki is right," Kalantari piped in as he pulled his silk dress pants on, "Your usual crude sexual remarks rarely work, and you try too hard. You'll seem desperate to them."

"Anyway, how the hell did the fatass get a girl?" Omakase jabbed his thumb at the orange teen, busy squeezing his arms through the sleeves of a seemingly too small black button-up shirt. "I'm willing to bet 8,000 yen it's cause of that python you got in your pants."

"See, Omakase," Toschi pinched the bridge of his nose, a tie loosely draped around his neck, "this shit is why you're still single. And I don't want to think about that!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the girl's shower, a similar conversation was taking place.

"Ladies, we have a problem." Takeyama paced in front of the girls, who were trying to shower in peace. "Moki is the only one of us who's got a man! We need to work harder!"

"The reason you can't get a boyfriend, Yu," Kaiza said, smirking, "is because they're turned off by your creeping on them." Takeyama whirled around, her long hair accidentally smacking Seishin in the face.

"And you'd have a man if you didn't keep _this_" she said, spanking her friend and earning a yelp and a scowl from the shorter teen, "hidden under those loose jeans you wear all the time."

"Skinny jeans chafe my thighs! And who says I don't have a man? I've been getting along with Hake!"

"Oh, sweetie," Ayatsuru crooned mockingly, pinching her friend's cheek, "We all know you just flirt with him so that he'll help you pass your tests."

"Oh, that's great coming from a fucking washboard. How much 'fluid' you sucked out of Kurami?"

Ayatsuru blushed and a thin tendril of water shot up from the floor, snaking its way directly up Kaiza's nostril as she choked, her friends laughing. "How the hell did you find out!?"

Kaiza grinned and held up her index fingers. "I can control electronics, remember?"

"You fucking hacked my phone?" Ayatsuru was livid, swirling tendrils of water circling Kaiza.

"Oh, I hacked all of your phones." The laughter abruptly stopped. The girls looked at Kaiza, blushing bright red. "Y'all are some dirty motherfuckers, for real!"

"H-how much have you seen?" Moki stammered.

Kaiza gave her a lecherous look. "Everything, you dirty birdy~."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the girls stepped out of the showers into the dressing room, towels wrapped around them (except Moki; she had to blow-dry herself since feathers don't really work properly with towels) as they all chatted casually, Kaiza having been thoroughly waterboarded by her fellow classmates.

"But anyway," Seishin continued as she opened her bag and pulled out a set of black underwear, "I'm serious about it. There are literally hundreds of studies that show it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter what scientists say, it does matter." Moki reached for the blow dryer, but Ayatsuru tapped her back and all of the water in her plumage rose into the air and floated over to the showers, splashing down the drain. She smiled at her feathered friend, and dried her own hair in a similar way.

"You're biased. We need someone impartial to decide this." Shiozaki pulled on a light blue dress with frills slashing from her shoulder to her waist. "Who could we ask?"

"Midnight?" The girls shuddered at Takeyama's suggestion.

"How about some of the girls from 3-A?" Moki pointed out, already dressed and polishing the gilded talon sheaths she had received from Edgeshot. She was a bit nervous; in the three years since she had received them, she had never worn them in public.

"Oh, sure Moki, great idea," Netsuke said over her shoulder as she stared into the mirror, applying a thin layer of eyeliner. "Let's go ask our friends whether they think it matters. Let's see how long they want to stay in contact with us after we all go our separate ways."

"I'm not sure I want to stay in contact if this is what you're going to be talking about," Shikora muttered, face slightly green as she layered on bright purple lipstick. "You guys do realize how uncomfortable this conversation makes me?"

"That's a 'you problem', Kami. You have no idea what you're missing out on. Of course, out of all of us Moki's the only one who _would_know…"

"Yeah, I guess Seishin's right. Oh, by the way, Moki?" The feathered girl turned to the curvy blonde, adjusting a few loose feathers on her cheeks. "Why did you choose Sasaki? You had all those guys to choose from, and you chose a fucking overgrown sweet potato?"

"First of all Yu, he's _my _sweet potato. And second," Moki sighed as the eight girls left the showers, walking up the long marble stairs to the main deck, "He's just really nice. He's always so happy and trying to make everyone smile, like me, and I guess we just kinda got closer without even realizing it. It just happened."

Kushiro wrapped her arm around her short friend's shoulder. "Are you _suuure _that's all?"

"…He's also really strong, and he makes me feel safe." The feathered girl was nervously touching the tips of her wings together, a faint blush barely visible through her plumage. "He's like a big, soft teddy bear that I can just hug all day…"

"I'm sorry," Kaiza had a lecherous grin on her face, "Did you say 'hug' or-" Her sentence was cut off as she bumped into something immovable. Looking up, she saw Sasaki towering over her, one eyebrow raised as if to say _I dare you_. He was wearing a black button-up shirt and pants, and a red bowtie with a magma pattern wrapped around his neck. "S-Sasaki, hey! We were just talking about you…"

"So I hear. Moki, you look absolutely gorgeous!" The bird girl buried her face in her wings, but leaned against him. "Hey guys! The girls are here!"

The boys came over to greet them, internally awestruck by the girls' various dresses and jewelry. The girls had the same internal conflict, with three students in particular catching their eyes. Reikokuna had his usually coarse and messy black hair, which he wore at shoulder-length, slicked back, tied in a short ponytail behind his head. He wore a dark navy silk tuxedo (true, it was a bit excessive, but it was the least fancy thing he could find) and a stunning gold and jewel-encrusted watch winded its way around his wrist. A set of sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose, and the girls saw two small diamond studs in his ears (none of his classmates knew he had ear piercings; he had gotten them without his parents' permission in middle school, and had hidden them in places where he felt he would be exposed).

Kalantari had a black shirt and pants, a white jacket covering his torso. He wore a red tie with small diamonds weaved into it, and a red rose stuck out of his lapel. His dark, silky hair had been left to cascade over his shoulders, blending into his shirt. Several jeweled rings were slid onto his fingers, twinkling in the sunset. His classmates could see a thin gold chain looping around his wrist, ruby and sapphire gazing back at them. The girls internally screamed at the sheer amount of wealth the two exuded.

And finally, at the back of the group, Toschi stood, hands on his waist. He was wearing simpler clothing, khaki pants and a teal button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was wearing several different gadgets: a red watch that could control nearly any wireless device, and had a holographic smartphone-like display that could be projected a few inches above his wrist; a strange red metal bracelet on his right arm; a plain leather belt with a clunky-looking solid buckle, a few LED's blinking on it; and a pair of frameless glasses. The glasses weren't for his eyesight, they were a prototype running off of the technology from his goggles. They could do everything the goggles could, but were much sleeker and less likely to attract attention. It wasn't his clothing that stuck out to them, it was the way he presented himself: pink hair scruffy as ever, shirt slightly wrinkled, but somehow managing to make messy look good.

"We are all here now?" Reikokuna asked, checking his watch. "Perfect timing. Katai flew the helicopter over, so we will ride it to the shore. After that, he shall drive us in a limousine to a restaurant of our choosing. Does that sound fun?"

Thirty minutes later, the teens piled out of a long, black van, leather bench seats lining the interior walls and a small retractable staircase protruding from the doorway. "We will take it from here, Katai," Reikokuna called to the silver-haired butler. "We shall return at roughly eleven or so, and then we will go to the train station to see my friends off." Katai bowed to his young master and closed the door, the limo pulling away into the downtown traffic. The teens had debated what restaurant to eat at, and had finally decided on a luxurious steakhouse (Reikokuna and Kalantari managed to convince their stubborn friends that they would pay for their meals). There had been some complaints that it might be insensitive to their animal brethren, to which Reikokuna informed them that he had no qualms about eating animals, even though he could transform into them, and Moki simply rolled her eyes and flashed her talons.

The restaurant was a spectacular choice, the steaks they served perfectly juicy and exactly the right tenderness that cutting it didn't take any effort. Sasaki, being such an enormous person, ended up ordering an equally massive 128-ounce ribeye, eight pounds of meat. It was so large, when it finally arrived, it took up nearly a quarter of the table. Reikokuna burned through a lot of energy during his time spent transformed, so he also ordered a shockingly large meal, a 96-ounce porterhouse, over 5 pounds. But the most shocking order came from the tiny, 4'8" Moki Tsubasa. She ordered 64 ounces of skirt steak, a full 7% of her body weight. She managed to devour the entire cut in less than an hour, almost faster than Reikokuna ate his meal. Sasaki ended up getting his cut for free; he demolished his massive slice in half an hour, stunning the dozens of employees that came to watch him take on the enormous meal. When everyone was finished and the waiter brought Reikokuna and Kalantari the receipt, Kalantari's brown eyes widened and even Reikokuna frowned at it.

"Sasaki, thank you so much for eating that thing so damn fast," Kalantari said, showing him the check. "You saved us almost 50,000 yen." Seishin choked on her drink, the table growing silent as they heard the value of the meal their friend had ordered. After Kalantari and Reikokuna split the bill and paid, the twenty classmates exited out into the streets, chatting excitedly. Takeyama suggested they all go to a karaoke bar, and twenty minutes later they were all crammed into a small room with a TV and speakers, laughing as each of them showed the class just how terrible they all were at singing.

Toschi was browsing through the song selection, bored, until he came across one he recognized. "Hey, Omakase?" His friend glanced up, and Toschi turned the tablet around, showing him the song. "You ever heard this song?" Omakase squinted at the screen and grinned.

After another three turns, they were up. Toschi found a guitar in the instrument closet and gave it a few strums, evidently satisfied with the sound it made. The lights dimmed, and he strummed it, the forlorn sound bringing the volume in the room down as Omakase picked up the microphone, and the song began.

* * *

**"Safe,**

**I'm a mystery, why don't you solve me?**

**Take a listen to the ground while I'm crawlin'**

**Pen and paper to write down your clues**

**Safe, safe,**

**In my head I can have all my reasons,**

**But it comes out like I'm always leavin'**

**Close the case, now you have all your proof**

**It's all I can do,**

**It's all I can do,**

**It's all I can do,**

**You keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you"**

Toschi played the chords of the chorus, cheers and applause coming from their friends as Omakase's soulful voice echoed along with Toschi's guitar.

**"You keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you"**

Omakase fixed a second microphone into a stand, and then it was Toschi's turn to sing.

**"Hey,**

**If only my breath could talk for me**

**I wouldn't be holding back all these**

**Thoughts about what we should do**

**Hey, hey,**

**You're not the worst that has fought me**

**Got my heart just relentlessly dropping**

**Out of my body, don't say it's not true**

**That's nothing new,**

**That's nothing new,**

**It's nothing new…"**

Toschi and Omakase both leaned into the microphones, their vocals perfectly harmonizing in a beautiful, reverberating call:

**"You keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you!"**

Toschi held the note a little longer, playing the guitar harder and faster.

**"You keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you!"**

Toschi's strumming fell, the room growing quiet as the two friends began to hum, the mournful beat beautiful to hear. The beat picked up, and it all went silent.

**"But you keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you!"**

Toschi slammed his fingers across the fretboard, the sharp solo filling the room with vitality as the speed of the notes grew faster.

**"You keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you!**

**You keep on trying cause maybe I'm crazy as you…"**

* * *

The music fell, and eventually trailed off. The students were silent for a moment, before exploding. The few turns after them were good, but it was a unanimous vote that Toschi and Omakase had won the best performance (neither of them knew there was a competition to begin with).

Toschi glanced down at his watch. "Hey, we've still got an hour until we're heading back. What else can we do?" A dull thud echoed from outside, and a small cloud of dust rose into the air as the room trembled. The group froze for a moment, then their instincts kicked in and they dashed out to the streets. People were screaming and running, and the heroes saw a flickering orange light down another street. They pushed through the panicking crowds, preparing for the worst, and then they burst onto a scene from hell.

Flames leapt from buildings, agonized people dragging themselves from the inferno. A massive crater sat where a large department store used to be, a trail of smoke leading from the sky. The ground shook, and the students yelled as the street quaked, rolling like a wave. The asphalt cracked, and buildings swayed, threatening to collapse. In the middle of the destruction, a man in a dark suit stood, hands extended to his sides as he posed like he was receiving divine praise. His dark eyes focused on the students, and a sickening grin came over his face. He raised his arm at the group, and it began to swell, black electricity crackling around it. Toschi's glasses flashed, and a yellow light burst from his belt as the villain fired a powerful burst of energy. It hit like a runaway train full of nitroglycerin, flattening the surrounding landscape. The man turned to walk away, but stopped as he saw a yellow glow through the smoke.

It cleared, and he saw Toschi standing in front of the students, and yellow shield of energy radiating from his belt. It vanished, and the students burst forward. Kurami slipped on his gloves and aimed his hands at the villain, rubbing them together. The villain stumbled, but shook his head, batting at the air as the others closed in on him. Moki flew in low, shedding her decorative sheaths and reaching into a hidden slit in her dress, pulling out the Hayabusa Blades. She dove and the blades slashed out, the man's severed arm falling to the ground. To her shock, he simply smiled and picked it up, somehow putting it back on and flexing it.

"What the fuck just happened!?" Seishin yelled, helping people run. "Moki just cut his arm off!"

"I thought his Quirk was that energy blast!" Sasaki shouted, puffing out his cheeks and spraying a wave of magma at the villain. He simply raised both hands, and the lava froze in the air. It turned black, cooling off, and fell, Sasaki narrowly avoiding being crushed by it. "What's going on?"

Toschi gasped. "I've been reading a particular study recently. These guys wanted to see the limits of people's powers, but they were killed before they could make their findings public!" The villain looked to him, an eyebrow raised. "I think this guy has more than one Quirk!"

"Clever boy," The villain sneered, his muscles swelling. "You might be problematic." Toschi tapped his watch, and he thought back to earlier that year, over winter break.

* * *

_"Are you sure this would work?" Toschi asked. The blonde teen nodded to him, excited._

_"I made them strong enough that Uncle Might could use them! I don't know how long they'd last at his full strength, though."_

_"Let me take a prototype back with me, I'll see what I can do about that."_

* * *

His eyes narrowed as the Full Gauntlets unfurled, wrapping around his forearms. Yellow blades of energy burst from the knuckles, crackling up his arms as his eyes began to glow. "I get that a lot."

A massive tentacle smashed into the man, knocking him back. Toschi glanced over his shoulder, nodding to Reikokuna's Leviathan form. A rush of wind from his other side caught his ear, and he looked over to see Kalantari hovering in the air, powdered glass from the destroyed buildings swirling around his lower half and wrists. He winked at the pink haired teen as Sasaki smashed his fists together, roaring. The four students raced towards the man, leaping at him, arms pulled back, and then everything went black. Toschi groaned, sitting up. The man was lying down at the end of a large chasm in the road, a golden-haired man panting next to them.

"It is fine now," the man said, glancing back at the stunned teens.

"All Might!" Toschi exclaimed. The veteran hero winked at him before turning to the villain, who was just now getting up.

"I am here," All Might growled, fury in his eyes, "to kill you, All For One!"

* * *

**Author's note:**

**God damn, 6,500 words! That's a long chapter, glad I got that out of the way. I wanted this story to fuck up the timeline of MHA more than it already has, and I've messed up so many things in this universe, but I still keep writing. I made a bet with my friends on how many plots I could put in this story, so here we go, Plot Number 11! Hope you all enjoy!**

**PS: Song is "Crazy As You" by Sullivan King and Grabbitz. Go check it out!**


	12. Chapter 11: Graduation II: New Beginning

Chapter 11: Graduation II: New Beginnings

"Children, leave this place." All Might's voice was full of rage, a look of utter hatred on his face. "It is not safe for you here."

"Hey, we're heroes." Sasaki tossed a chunk of concrete into his mouth, crunching it down. "We don't back down when there are people that need saving."

All For One leapt at All Might, swollen arm raised. All Might met the punch with one of his own, the shockwave blowing the young heroes away. "Get yourselves to safety!" The veteran yelled. He smashed his other fist into All For One's face, but the shock recoiled back at him. The force of their initial impact finally threw the two apart, All Might immediately appearing behind the villain.

"WASHINGTON SMASH!" He whirled around, slamming his elbow into the back of All For One's head, sending the villain flying across the street. He calmly stood up, his injuries flashing white before disappearing.

"A gallant effort, All Might." His voice radiated a smug aura; _He's toying with All Might, _Toschi thought. "However, I fear your efforts shall be in vain. It took me almost a decade to get to you, and that's the most you can come up with? Nana Shimura must be rolling in her grave." A massive, evil grin spread across his face. "That is, if there were enough of her left to bury."

All Might moved faster than Toschi could see. In an instant, the villain was at the bottom of a massive crater, a surge of wind forcing the students back. Toschi threw up his shield and grabbed onto a streetlight, riding out the gale. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasaki bracing himself against the wind, Moki and Reikokuna in his arms. All Might slammed the villain through a building before launching him into the air, sending him high above the city before seemingly teleporting right above him.

"DETROIT SMASH!" All For One rocketed toward the ground, laughing.

"You don't get it, do you?" He crashed into the street, a blast of dust filling the air. All Might landed, glancing around. Behind him, Toschi saw a massive clawed hand rise up, red energy crackling in its palm.

"All Might!" he screamed. All Might whirled around as the energy exploded. The world seemed to slow down as the energy beam struck All Might in the chest, breaking through his body as he let out an agonized yell. The four students still at the scene could only watch with horror in their eyes as the laser cut through All Might's chest, a burst of blood raining into the air. His body flew across the battlefield, and Sasaki jumped, catching the hero in his arms and skidding to a halt. All For One laughed, a maniacal sound that shook the heroes to their cores.

"So there we have it!" He proclaimed, face and hands outstretched to the sky. "Your precious 'Symbol of Peace'! Take a good look at him! Look upon his broken body, his final breaths!" Moki and Reikokuna rushed to Sasaki, the injured hero clutched in his arms. He coughed up blood as the frantic heroes tried to stem the flow of blood.

_Oh, shit, I've done it now. I shouldn't have let my personal grudge get in the way. Master really would be disappointed in me…_As he thought, movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. All For One was glowing yellow, unmoving. Toschi leapt from behind him, yelling, and slammed the Full Gauntlets, crackling with energy, into the villain's upturned face. The glow faded, and he spun backwards, nearly bending in half as he shot to the ground in an instant. Toschi spun on his heel, slamming his foot into All For One's stomach. He raised his fists, then ducked, his shield flaring up as a massive, spiked fist slammed into it. He was flung back, slamming through the concrete as All For One stood, panting. He touched his fingers to his lip, and saw blood.

"Take a good look, All Might," he said, eyes focused on Toschi. "Watch as this worthless brat dies, just like your pitiful master! Watch as I kill him, and you do nothing!" He raised his fist in the air, thunder crackling as a burst of flame gushed from his fist. Toschi's eyes went wide, and the fist came down.

Sasaki saw a flame in All Might's blue eyes. _If I don't stop him now, _All Might thought, time seemingly slowing down as he sat up, _then all that Master taught me will be for naught! _He got his knee under his body, forcing his screaming muscles to obey. _I have to do it for her! I have to do it for young Hatsume! _He took a step, the world moving slower than a snail, then another. And another. They came faster now, and he raised his fist._I have to overcome my fears, and go beyond! _He leapt as All For One's head slowly started to turn, sensing movement. "PLUS ULTRA!"

His fist slammed into All For One, burying itself in his enemy's face as he pulled the full strength of One For All into his fist. The villain's body stayed still for a moment, then there was a snap, and his head whipped to the side, All Might's knuckles sinking into his skull. No amount of healing could fix the immense damage All Might was delivering at that moment. His punch followed through, and All For One rocketed down the street, right towards an emergency fire hydrant. He struck the metal post, his skull wrapping around it like a deflated water balloon. His body crushed forward, denting the metal post as his bones snapped like toothpicks.

All Might panted, face contorted in a mix of fury and agony. He collapsed to one knee, coughing heavily as blood splashed to the ground. The four teens were dumbfounded; All Might had been on the ground next to them one moment, then in less than an instant he was almost 40 feet away, All For One was flying down the street as a massive wind sucked rubble and dust through the city at lightning speeds. Toschi scrambled over to the collapsed hero as Moki, Sasaki, and Reikokuna sprinted over, reaching down and unclasping his belt buckle. He stuck it to All Might's chest and pressed a few buttons on the side of it. A yellow field of energy flowed out of it and into the gaping hole in All Might's chest. It filled the wound, pressing against the walls of the gash and stanching the heavy bleeding.

"The Symbol of Peace must not be defeated," All Might coughed. Toschi looked at the hero's eyes and saw a hollow, despondent look. "I implore you all, tell no one of what happened here." Toschi looked to his friends, horrified expressions in their eyes.

"Don't worry, All Might." He glanced down at the wounded hero, giving him a wink. "Nothing happened here." The three others nodded, and All Might visibly deflated, his muscles going weak.

"Thank you, all of you. Now, help me to Sir Nighteye." Reikokuna stepped a distance away and transformed into his Dragon form. Toschi and Sasaki helped All Might onto his back, and Reikokuna flapped into the air, turning towards Tokyo and shooting off, Moki just behind them.

* * *

"THREE, TWO, ONE!" A cascade of graduation caps flew into the air, and a mass cheer rose from the crowd. 500 graduating students roared, all three years of high school finally behind them. The (former) students of class 3-B gathered together, cheering and laughing. But for the four heroes who were there the previous night, their smiles hid the conflict inside them. They had seen All Might nearly killed by a lone villain, and had been sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the image of the "unbreakable" Symbol of Peace.

A small, pink-haired girl leapt onto Toschi's back. "You did it, big cousin!" Mei cheered, climbing up to his shoulders and laughing. He couldn't help but smile at the girl's infectious joy. "Oh, mom said to give you this." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone, a bit scratched up, but otherwise in good shape.

"My phone?" Toschi looked over the device, which brought his mind back to the previous night's events. "I thought it got broken last night."

"I fixed it for you!" Toschi's eyes went wide, and he tilted his head back to look at his nine-year-old cousin. "Mom said you would be happy that I actually fixed something for once. Are you?"

He continued to look at her in awe, then smiled and rubbed her knee. "I am happy, Mei. I'm so proud of you." He heard a camera shutter go off, and he turned to see his aunt and uncle smiling, his aunt pointing her phone at him.

"We're so happy for you, Toschi!" She wrapped him in a tight hug, a tear in her eye. His uncle embraced him too, and he awkwardly smiled, looking around him. His friends weren't paying much attention, engrossed in their own parents' fussing. He noticed Sasaki's father, standing nearly a head taller than everyone, other than his own son. Moki's dad had her wrapped in his enormous wings, like a dark angel protecting his precious daughter from the horrors of the world. He was beginning to grow silver feathers around his face and neck, the contrasting color framing the ugly scar on the right side of his face, making him look like a hero coming out of retirement.

Reikokuna's parents and younger brother were there as well, talking enthusiastically with Kalantari's family. His younger sisters and brother were excitedly talking with Reikokuna's brother about some children's show, while the rich heroes' mothers watched them, smiles on their face. Upon spotting other children her age, Mei hopped off Toschi's shoulders and rushing over to play. Mr. Reikokuna and Hell's Child were jokingly comparing each other's lifestyles; while Mr. Reikokuna looked like an average businessman, he stood at over 6 feet tall, a bit shorter than his son. He had a neatly trimmed moustache and amber yellow eyes, and had no qualms with "unintentionally" showing Hell's Child his watch, which he claimed was worth as much as his car. Hell's Child, Kalantari's father, was in his hero clothes: a long, black robe with blood red accents, an upside-down cross tattooed on the insides of his wrists. He had long black hair and a short, rather scratchy goatee, and spent the conversation "casually" flexing his forearms, which nearly rivalled All Might's.

A spidery hand clamped down on his shoulder, and he felt an arm wrap around his neck. "We made it! Yeah!" Omakase cheered, dragging his friend towards the rest of the class. "Come on, this is our last chance to say goodbye to everyone!" The class stood together in a circle, arms around each other's shoulders as they smiled, remembering all of the experiences they shared together.

"So, where do we go from here?" Netsuke asked. "Will we ever see each other again?" Are we just going off into the world all alone?"

"I plan to return home," Kalantari said, bringing the eyes of the group to him. "Kuwait is a dangerous place, full of villains and war. My father has been overworked; I want to help my country fight. I want to give my father the rest he deserves."

"I plan to go work with a relatively newer hero, Cyclomachina." Reikokuna's voice was strong, yet the group felt a hint of sadness behind his tough façade. "Sasaki and Moki proposed to accompany me at Team Flashburn."

"It'll be great working together," Sasaki piped in. "At least we know we'll stay in contact."

"What about you, Hatsume?" All eyes turned to the pink haired teen at Shikora's question. "What will you do? The rest of us are going to different hero agencies, and you can't join one because you never got your license."

"I don't want one, I don't need one. I'm going to study under Professor Shield at I-Island and his laboratory in California, in the United States. I'll probably stick around there for a few years before coming back here. I want to work on making personalized gear for the top heroes. I figure that'll be you guys," he joked. "Mei told me she wants to be like me, so I have to set a good example for her." He glanced over his shoulder at his little cousin, laughing as she ran around with Reikokuna and Kalantari's siblings. "I may not be a real hero, but I'll be her hero."

* * *

_Six years later…_

Melissa Shield struggled, finally pushing open the door to Toschi Hatsume's room. She panted, annoyance on her face as she identified the source of the trouble: dozens of abandoned blueprints lay scattered on the floor, jamming under the sliding door's wheels. The inventor in question was shirtless, slumped over at a messy workbench, dozens of empty energy drink cans scattered all around him, a minifridge under the desk cleaned out, door open. Before him lay a few wrenches and drills, and a soldering iron sat at one corner, thin tendrils of smoke curling up from the end. A military-style helmet lay just in front of his head, a metal chin guard protruding down and forming a motorcycle-like enclosure around the face area. Flipped above the open face was a set of triple-lens goggles, apparently some sort of night-vision technology.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a miniature airhorn. Slowly, she brought her hand up next to his head. A violently loud noise filled the room, making Melissa wince. Toschi didn't move at first, then slowly turned his face to her, a smug look in his eyes. He reached up to his ear and pulled out a small rubber plug.

"Not getting me like that again, Melissa." The blonde rolled her eyes, smiling. "So what's up? Why'd you wake me?"

"The expo's going to open in thirty minutes. Dad told me to get your ass out of bed before you embarrass the Academy."

"What are you talking about?" Toschi leaned forwards again, casually glancing at the clock on his wall. "The expo doesn't start until four-" The clock read 3:35. His eyes snapped fully open. "Shit, shit, shit!" He jumped up, diving across his room to the closet, throwing it open and grabbing the least wrinkly shirt he could find, throwing it on and buttoning it in record time. He grabbed a set of khakis and quickly slid them on over his casual shorts. He raced back to his desk, grabbing a half-empty energy drink and railing it down, grabbing his newest invention and giving the helmet a final look over before dashing to the door, glancing behind him. "You coming?"

"I'm going to meet Uncle Might when he arrives, it shouldn't be too long. Depending on what dad has to say when he sees him, I might be showing him around the expo. Good luck!" She planted a quick peck on his cheek as he dashed off, the wrong way to the elevator. "Where are you going?"

"Shortcut!" he yelled over his shoulder. He leaped through an open window at the end of the hallway, and Melissa sprinted to it. They were on the seventieth floor of the central tower, after all. Toschi sailed towards the ground, and just as he was about to crash, froze the helmet under him. He slid off it and skidded to a halt on the ground, then gave it a quick tap on the bottom as he unfroze it. It bounced into the air a few feet, then he caught it and dashed off to the expo hall. Melissa sighed, rolling her eyes at him, and headed for the elevator.

* * *

Toschi spent the next few hours at his booth in the exhibition hall, greeting dozens of heroes, inventors, and scientists that came to see his gadgets. Since his first expo seven years prior, he had become somewhat of a celebrity, with over 40 heroes requesting custom gear to help them. At around 5:30, he noticed a familiar sweater across the hall. He tapped a button on his watch, and the tiny contact lenses he wore changed focus, zooming in on the person. Melissa was walking around the show with a green-haired teen in a light green jumpsuit and red sneakers. He observed the pair, noticing how excited the teen would get whenever he would see a hero, no matter how popular they were. He chuckled when three young girls about his age met up with them, watching the teen's face turn red as he tried to explain something to the three, most likely that he wasn't on a date with Melissa. He made himself a mental note to talk with her about it; it might be good for a laugh.

Near dinnertime, Melissa left for the opening ceremony. She had told him about the students she had met with. Apparently, the jumpy boy she was showing around was called "Izuku Midoriya", going by the hero name "Deku". He was a student at U.A, just like he had been, but what shocked Toschi the most was that All Might himself had invited the teen to the expo. Melissa showed him a video of the teen at the combat trial, and Toschi was instantly enraptured by the young hero. The teen with the exploding hands was undeniably strong, but Deku had a type of raw power in him that Toschi had only seen in a few people before. He pointed out to Melissa that the teen looked like he was holding back, and she confirmed it, telling Toschi that he had scars all up his hands and arms, that the teen's body couldn't handle the full strength of his Quirk.

Toschi wasn't going to be at the opening ceremony, stating his dislike for fancy clothing. Truthfully, he had felt a sense of danger looming over I-Island ever since that morning, and the lingering traces of his desire to be a hero and protect people was eating away at his brain. He crouched on the rooftop of a nearby apartment complex, wearing his goggles and belt. He had never managed to repair the Full Gauntlets that he had borrowed from Melissa, but he had never needed to before now. As he fidgeted, he heard alarms start to go off all across the island. The island's security bots raced out, filling the streets and urging people back into shelter. He reached to his earpieces, trying to tune into the emergency radio signals, but only got static. He pulled out his phone to contact Melissa, but the service was dead. The lights shut off across the island, and he squinted in suspicion, activating his belt.

Besides the shield, his belt could create a reinforced energy brace around his fists and legs, allowing him to hit harder without hurting himself. The glowing braces shot out, crossing his back and thighs and wrapping around his fists and feet. His goggles glowed yellow, scanning the area for threats. A message appeared in his peripheral vision. "Security bot instructions…" he read, scanning the message. "What? What the hell's going on up there?" He heard movement below him, and his goggles popped up with another message. Below him, security bots were lining up in front of each door in the apartment complex. He heard giggling and whispering through his earpiece, and his goggles registered three people in the room directly under him. The robot turned to face the door, then Toschi heard a coded message broadcast from it. There was rattling below on the street, and then a thud. He snuck a peek over the edge of the roof, and saw a security bot standing on the balcony.

Below him, the three people appeared to be hiding, huddled in the closet. The bot punched through the glass door, and rolled into the room. His goggles registered it going into attack mode, and he dropped off the rooftop onto the balcony, landing quietly. His goggles picked out two sets of terrified eyes peeking out from the closet, and registered the outline of a third person, but he didn't see anyone there. He slowly approached the robot from behind, quietly reaching to his wrist and pulling out a thin cord. He shot forward before the robot could react, jamming the end of the cord into a data port just below its neck. The robot froze, then shut off. The three occupants tumbled out of the closet, and Toschi brought his finger to his mouth, warning them to be quiet. They were girls, one of whom had bright pink hair and skin, and black eyes. Another had long green hair and long fingers, and the third appeared to be invisible.

"Stay here. The security system's been compromised." Toschi turned to the balcony, stepping onto the rail. "If you get cornered, use your Quirks to fight."

"Are you a hero?" the pink girl asked.

"I'm not a hero, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to solve a problem. Just stay here and keep quiet so the bots don't come back." He leapt from the balcony, silent thrusters on his belt lifting him into the air. He snuck his way to the base of the tower and glanced into the dinner hall. The people inside were wrapped up by the security restraint systems, and he saw All Might lying on the stage, wrapped up. All around them, people stood with bulletproof vests and guns, aiming them at anyone who tried to move. One man had a metal mask on, and was wearing a white coat.

Kinetica tapped a button on his goggles, and his vision filled with blue and green. He was getting a thermal view of the tower. About a third of the way up the tower, he saw a massive surge of purple, showing something very cold had just happened. The area filled with dozens of red and orange bursts, and he spotted nine individuals racing away from the room. _Villains? _He thought. _No, they're too small to be villains. Those Quirks… the U.A. students! They're going to try and stop the villains! But why are there nine going farther, if two are still fighting behind- _His eyes widened. _Melissa!_

A warning appeared in the corner of his goggles:

**WARNING: HIGH ENERGY LEVELS DETECTED**

He flipped to another view, this one showing energy levels. The dozens of heroes trapped in the banquet hall shone, All Might brighter than anyone else. However, Toschi was shocked to see the man in the metal mask glowing nearly as bright. A sudden flash made him squint, and he saw a burst of energy above, as bright as All Might's glow. _Someone as powerful as All Might? _His mind instantly flashed back to when he heard Melissa talk about Deku. _All Might himself brought him… _He heard the elevator doors open, and the metal-masked man left, grumbling. _They're gonna get caught! I have to do something! _Two more flashes from above caught his eye, both about the same, though less than the powerful one from before. Then, a third flash, and his vision swam. It was brighter than anything he had seen in his life, and quickly faded. He leapt, and the thrusters carried him into the air, around a hundred feet up. He switched back to the thermal view, and saw several figures. There were five in the archive room, and one at the control computer. He saw two of the figures lying down, and upon zooming in, realized there was blood pooling from them.

The lights flickered on below him, and the person at the computer dashed back out. _That must be Melissa! That's why she went with them! Only she could have reprogrammed the security system! _Below him, he heard a door slam open, and a rush of wind. A body slammed into the wall next to him, and a pair of deep blue eyes locked with his own yellow ones.

"Good to meet you again, young Hatsume." Toschi smiled, looking at the Symbol of Peace.

"There's trouble on the rooftop!" Toschi told the hero, pointing. "Melissa and Deku went to stop the villains!"

All Might's eyes narrowed, and he pulled, throwing himself up to the top. A minute or so passed, then Toschi's head exploded. The goggles had set to their "power scan" mode, and something very bright had just detonated, making his head swim, and a rush of air threw him back down to the rooftops, where he crashed to a halt. Groggily looking up, he saw hundreds of tentacles of iron curling and thrashing at the top of the tower. He zoomed his goggles as far as they could, and he spotted All Might get sucked into a metal sphere. Suddenly, huge spikes tore through it. He gasped, then saw movement.

The green-haired teen, Deku, had leapt forward, slamming his fist into the metal as electricity crackled around him. Around his wrist was a familiar device, painted in red. The sphere exploded, All Might and Deku falling to the rooftop. Toschi collapsed to his knees as the shockwave from the punch slammed into him like a hurricane. All Might and Deku shot through the sky as Toschi saw the villain raise his arms above him. Thousands of pieces of metal began forming into a mass, and Toschi gasped as the massive, hundred-meter wide cube blasted towards the duo like a meteor out of hell.

All Might pulled his fist back, Toschi recognizing the incoming Detroit Smash, but he was not prepared for Deku to do the same. They both hit the cube at the same time, cracks forming all across it, then a massive thunderclap struck his ears as the cube exploded, the two heroes blasting towards the villain. Quickly, he flipped his goggles back over his eyes, and saw both energy levels merged, glowing twice as bright. _That's not possible! Unless… do they share a Quirk!? _All Might and Deku slammed into the villain, a massive flash of light radiating out as the massive tendrils of metal disintegrated, the clouds being pushed aside by the force of the impact. Through the smoke, he saw the sun rising, a figure silhouetted against the light. Toschi squinted, trying to focus on the shape. He thought it was All Might, but he was too small to be the hero. His vision sharpened, and he saw Deku, framed against the sky, fist raised.

_Such power, it's impossible! _Toschi thought. _It's like he's- no, he IS All Might! There's no other explanation! _His mind raced, the subtle clues all linking together. _All Might himself invited this boy, they have roughly the same power levels; actually, Deku's was higher! They even fought the same! But why would All Might- _Toschi's eyes widened, his chest shaking. _The fight. All Might was hurt in the fight against that All For One guy! Could All Might have been so injured he needed to train a successor? No, that's impossible, there's nobody in the world that can even compare to All Might's strength. Unless… _

A person on the street screamed as a large portion of the tower came rushing down. Toschi instantly leapt from the rooftops, stretching his hand out and slapping the underside of the rubble as he threw a small electronic device, sticking to the side of the debris. He curled up into a ball as he pressed a button on his wrist, an explosion echoing through the street as he unfroze the debris. The chunk of the tower sailed over the wall of the island towards the ocean, its trajectory altered by the nanite explosive he had attached to it. The explosion sent him crashing to the ground. His head slammed into the concrete, and his vision went dark.

The blood in his head pounded like a drum, and he tasted something coppery in his mouth. He coughed, rolling over on his side and feeling a sticky substance pooling around his head. He sat up, but immediately hunched over, vomiting as the world seemed to swirl around him. He faintly tapped a few buttons on his watch, and felt a sharp jab below its face. The adrenaline dose he had injected himself with began to clear his head almost instantaneously, and he tore off one of his sleeves, tying it around the bleeding wound on the back of his scalp, wincing as he felt something loose shift on his skull._That's not good…_he thought. Sitting back, he took a quick look around him, observing dozens of heroes already rushing to provide aid to any injured citizens and evacuating the main tower.

"Toschi!" a voice called. He glanced over his shoulder and his vision filled with blue as someone tackled him. "Are you okay? What happened to you?" He winced as Melissa ran her fingers over his injury, but sighed and buried his face in her chest.

"It's nothing serious, I just landed wrong." He reached up to stroke her arm, and his head jerked up as he felt a bandage. "What happened to you? What was all that fighting at the top? I was looking and my goggles picked up a huge surge of power and-"

"It's okay, it's okay, Deku and Uncle Might defeated the villain." He felt her tremble a bit. "Dad staged the whole thing so that he could steal back an invention, but the fake villains turned out to be real." Hot tears dripped onto his head, and he heard a sniffle. "I trusted him, Toschi. I trusted dad, but now I don't know what to do, I mean…"

"I just don't know how to believe it," Toschi said after a short pause. "What was Professor Shield trying to steal back?"

"It was an invention that would increase the power of one's Quirk. You probably don't know this, but apparently Uncle Might's getting weaker. Dad just wanted him to stay the Symbol of Peace, but his company took away the invention so that villains couldn't get it. I guess that didn't work out so well," she joked through her tears. Toschi stared off, softly rubbing her back as his mind flicked back to a certain box in his room back in Japan. _He made something like that? Guess the student follows the teacher…_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Well, here we are. The next chapter will be an epilogue. That's it. This is the end of the fifth story in the Slaughterhouse series, and I have to say, it's been fun. I really enjoy writing these, and I can't wait for you all to experience the next story! More information will be provided in the A/N in the epilogue. Until then, stay tuned!**


	13. Epilogue: Falling

Epilogue: Falling

A blinding flash. An incredible pain in his left arm, then nothing. _Drip, drip, drip._ The blood trickling from his wounds soaked into his suit, matting his hair like glue. He felt only the pounding in his head, seeing nothing but red stars, swirling in his eyes. He faintly registered movement, but he felt no senses. A faint blue light, a cooling sensation throughout his body; Toschi sighed.

He opened his eyes. Then he blinked. He was certain his eyes were open, but everything was still dark. He couldn't see his body, couldn't move. He was just a consciousness in the abyss. He felt a falling sensation, as though his non-existent stomach had leapt to his throat. Flashes of light spattered him from all sides. He tried to close his eyes, but it did nothing. The lights swirled all around him, blurring his mind as they began to form images.

A young, pink-haired child staring in awe at the baseball he had just thrown, frozen in place, a yellow light softly pulsing from it. His black-eyed friend flying back into the air, laughing wildly as he was sent off by his friend's Quirk. Two black coffins, slowly descending into the ground as his three-year old cousin gripped his finger. The images kept coming, faster and faster. The sound of his blood roaring through his ears filled the void as the images rushed through his brain, and a piercing alarm began to ring from the depths below. A blinding explosion, the mushroom cloud boiling and raging above him. The skin melting off the nuclear villain's skull, her agonized screech forever etched into his brain. A deep red beam cutting through the Symbol of Peace, the explosion of power from the top of I-Island's central tower, it all came back at him. Splashes of blood, agonized screams from the horrified criminals, and two glowing red eyes staring him down, a sadistic grin stretched across the teen's face, even as blood and tissue dripped from the gash bisecting his face. The screams from his cousin as he leapt towards the frozen orb of death, returning it back to its sender as his arm disintegrated, the massive wave of heat turning his left side into char. Screams filled the abyss, and he realized they were his own, then everything went dark.

Toschi was left panting, his head dizzy. He began to feel a pressure on his back, and he groaned, turning his head to the side. He was back in his body, his surroundings completely black. Beneath him was some sort of floor, reflecting his visage back at him. He sat up, spotting a faint light a few feet from him. Slightly wobbly, he stood, walking to the light. As soon as he got close, it disappeared, and another popped up a bit farther away. More lit up, and he saw them lighting a trail through the darkness.

* * *

For hours, Toschi followed the lights. He didn't know why, but there was nothing else for him to do. Besides thinking, of course. _Is this limbo? Where am I? Isn't there supposed to be someone guiding me or something? People usually tell stories that someone comes to lead you off when you die, but I haven't seen anyone. So maybe I'm not dead? But what else could I be? What am I? I'm me. Am I? What is me, exactly? And why is this walk so goddamn long?_

As he trudged onwards, he finally came across an obsidian chair, glowing purple as it sparkled in the darkness. He looked all around him, then reached out to touch it.

"Oi, oi!" He jumped as a deep, rough voice filled his head. Whipping his head around, he saw a cloaked figure standing behind him, a laptop clasped in a skeleton hand. The other hand cradled a steaming mug, and Toschi could have sworn the figure was wearing fluffy bunny slippers. Narrow, glowing red eyes leered out from the depths of the cloak. "Th' bloody hell are ye doin'? Get the fuck away from me throne!"

"Who are you?" Toschi asked, taking a cautious step back as the skeleton moved to sit down.

"Where the hell do ye think ye are, ya wee cunt?" The figure waved a bony hand over the vast emptiness. "Welcome to limbo!"

"Did I get isekai'd?"

"…Kid, ye've no got a fuckin' clue how hard I want ta punch ye right now." The figure sighed, slouching in his throne as he reached into the depths of his cloak and pulled out a set of reading glasses. He opened the laptop, lazily tapping away at the keys. "Alright, let's get this over with. Name?"

Toschi raised his eyebrow at the strange being. "I asked first."

The figure made a motion as though he were rolling his eyes. "I'm the milkman that banged yer fuckin' mum and spawned yer ugly ass, obviously. I'm Death. Ye died. Ye come here when ye die, and I tell ye where I send ye for eternity." He lifted the mug to the general location of his face, and Toschi heard a sipping noise. "Obviously, I wasn't expecting an unscheduled demise, but yer here now. Name?"

"Toschi Hatsume." Death made a choking sound and his eyes went wide, and pounded a bony hand on his chest, making a clacking sound.

"The fuck? Yer early, ye speccy cunt! Ye weren't supposed to be here for another…" his head moved closer to the screen, and his eyes narrowed. "…sixty-three years! The fuck happened ta ye?"

"I got in a fight with a villain." Toschi sighed, looking down at his left arm. "At least I have this back now. Also, what do you mean 'unscheduled demise'? I thought it was common for people to die early."

"Yeah, I got a list of everyone's scheduled deaths right here. It's kinda long, so we switched ta a cloud-based system instead a scrolls. At least I got this sweet computer out of it. Runs DOTA 2 at 60 fps. But anyway, yeah, all that shit's planned. People getting cancer and shit? Me twin sister Life has, like, a ten trillion-sided die that she rolls when some new person gets made that determines their life and death. Hell if I know how that works."

Toschi rubbed his chin. "So, you're saying that I died before Life said I would? How does that happen?"

Death took another sip of his drink. "It happens sometimes. Her die has so many sides ta it, sometimes she gets it wrong. Not often, though. The last time I had an unscheduled death was over two hundred years ago. Also, by the way, yer original plan was for ye ta get testicular cancer at fifty-three and have ta get yer bollocks sliced out. The cancer would have come back when ye were seventy-seven and spread throughout yer knob, and it would swell up so much that ye'd die from low blood pressure."

Toschi stared at the skeleton in utter disbelief. "Are you joking?"

"Nah, ye really got the shite ending, mate. But anyway, let's get down ta the serious talk." Death leaned forward, resting his chin on his fist. "Ya done a lot a good shite for the world, but ye've also done fucked up. A lot. Ye could've been great, but ye ended up bunging yerself up the arse getting mixed up with that mad loony Chiraka cunt." Toschi sighed, rubbing his forehead, and Death snapped his finger. A chair popped up under him, and Toschi sat down. "But ye know what? All that shite ye got yerself mixed into fertilizer with gets cancelled out by all the good stuff ye've done. I really don't like people, so ye can't stay here. I'll make ye a deal." Toschi looked up in surprise. "Ye get five minutes ta go back ta real life and do something. And if I was ye," he leaned forwards into Toschi's ear, whispering. "I'd go do something that'll make yer chums win this upcoming battle. It's gonna get balls nasty out there."

"…Alright. I know what I need to do. Send me back." Death held out his finger, then flicked Toschi in the forehead. He lifted into the air, then swirled and shrank down, like water down a drain, until he popped out of the realm.

* * *

Death tapped his fingers, waiting. His eyes snapped open as he heard a crack from above. Toschi suddenly fell from above, crashing into the ground in front of him.

"So? How'd it go up there? Ye fix everything alright?"

"At the very least," Toschi groaned, picking himself up, "They have a fighting chance now. With the Q.A, there's no way they can lose this fight."

"And yer completely certain it's no gonna make things worse for them sad cunts?"

"I'm positive." Toschi sighed, standing tall. "Well, guess it's time. Send me off, Death."

Death raised his hands. A beam of light shone from above, illuminating Toschi as he rose, eyes closed.

"Hey, Death. One more thing: how the hell do you drink stuff if you're a skeleton?"

"No fuckin' clue. The author was a raging autist and didn't think me design all the way through."

"What?"

"Never mind, kid. Enjoy yer life of luxury." Toschi faded out of sight, and the light disappeared. Death sighed, leaning back and tapping away at his computer. "Now, let's see which mangy knucklefucks might be paying me a visit." A video appeared on his screen, showing him a live feed of what was happening in the world. He squinted at a small blob, and zoomed in. Standing on the crest of a hill were eight figures, staring down at a city below them. Two of the figures stood twenty feet tall; one with a jagged, rocky jaw, and the other white and red striped, shiny black head interrupted by two clouded red eyes.

* * *

Tomura Shigaraki grinned down at the city. He began to walk towards it, but Dabi held out a hand to stop him.

"Why don't we just let the tanks do this?" he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Chiraka and Gigantomachia. "They could take this city out all on their own."

"No, no. This is all a psychological ruse, Dabi. Don't you see? If we send those two in, it'll make us look like a bunch of weak brats hiding behind the muscles. If we're gonna show those guys who we are, then I say let's show them who we are." He brushed Dabi's arm aside. "Besides, Twice looks like he's gonna blow if he doesn't get Giran back from those fuckers."

"I'll kill them all! He's probably already dead, there's no point! Come on, let's go save him!"

"Spinner, you're on Twice duty. Make sure he doesn't do anything I would do."

Spinner rolled his eyes, but slid two daggers out of his belt. "This isn't what Stain would have wanted," he muttered, but followed his friends down the hill.

Shigaraki turned, calling over his shoulder. "Machia, if things look bad, come on down. You shouldn't have to, but if we get into trouble, give 'em hell."

Gigantomachia and Chiraka stood at the crest, watching them go. "I am still not convinced that Shigaraki is a suitable successor to Master," Gigantomachia said, arms crossed. "I would never deny Master's wishes or beliefs, but if I were choosing, it'd be you. You're exactly the kind of raw, violent power Master loves." He turned to Chiraka as he heard a hissing sound. The vigilante had shrunken back down to his normal size, panting as he collapsed on the ground. He clenched his eyes shut, then they opened, clear of the fog.

As the villains entered the city, Toga skipped forwards, tapping Shigaraki on the shoulder. "Hey Tomura, I know this is a bad time, but I forgot to mention that we ran out of that drug we had Chi' on."

"…What?"

"Yeah, we ran out last time I gave it to him. Sorry, I just remembered." She gave him a grin.

Shigaraki stared back at her, scratching his neck. "When we get done with this, I'm going to kill you." He pulled out his phone, tapping a number into it. "Doctor, how soon can you get more of that mind-control drug to us?"

"_I can have Johnny send some over in a few hours. Is he going to be dangerous until then?_"

"He's useless without the drug. If he tries anything, Machia will hold him. Besides, he's stuck as a human when it wears off. What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**And with that, we say goodbye to Toschi Hatsume. He did a lot of good, he did a lot of bad, but in the end he redeemed himself. Also, Death is Scottish for whatever reason. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this side story to Slaughterhouse: New Mission. If you're waiting on the third installment of the main trilogy, make sure to get update alerts from my profile! Stay tuned for the next story, which will be even longer than this one! I hope you all are ready, for ****Slaughterhouse: Doomsday!**


	14. Epilogue Pt II: Kinetica Hero Sheet

_**Some time ago, I came to the realization that Kinetica's abilities were never fully explained, such as how he can freeze objects from a distance. Thus, I have created this handy data sheet explaining everything you need to know about our friend Toschi.**_

**-Enderdez45**

* * *

**Real Name: **Toschi Hatsume

**Hero Name: **Kinetica

**Quirk: **Stasis - by touching any organic or inorganic object, he can place it in a frozen state where any kinetic energy will be conserved. For example, if he freezes an apple in the air and releases it, it will simply fall. However, if he punches the apple while it is frozen, when he releases it the kinetic energy transferred to the apple by the punch will be released as well, and the apple will be knocked back with the same amount of force that was applied to it.

**Drawbacks: **The length of time he can keep an object frozen is based on two factors: the more mass an object has, and the amount of energy the object is holding. Additionally, his ability is limited to things he actually touches, but he has negated this condition with his costume. In any case, the longest he can freeze an object for is around 25-30 seconds. Any longer will start to cause severe damage to his body, as the energy required to keep the object frozen will be too high for him to handle, and the energy in the object will "short circuit" straight through him, leaving permanent scars.

**Costume: **As he comes from a long line of inventors, Toschi elected to build his costume himself. It is made of blue carbon fiber armor with yellow lines and cables accenting his arms, legs, chest, and neck. The yellow lines are actually superconductor nanobots that can use Stasis to store energy and reform his suit into different shapes, such as his shields, rocket boosters, and other things. They can also speed up their movement or slow it down to regulate his body temperature. He controls them through a small control panel on his chest plate, and later via his smartwatch. He monitors all aspects of his suit with a special visor that can accurately detect the amount of kinetic energy he stores and can determine the exact vector it will be released through

There are also emitters around him that create an electromagnetic wave that allows his Quirk to travel through air. The emitters project the electromagnetic waves, and when they come in contact with an object, they create a semi-physical "bridge" that allows his Quirk to travel along it. This way, he can freeze things from a distance. He used these emitters on his vigilante costume as a failsafe, but because that costume was mostly fabric and didn't have his nanobots helping, it wore him down very quickly.

Additionally, when he projects force fields, the emitters operate on a lower power that causes the waves to dissipate after a short distance. This results in him actually freezing the particles of air around him, creating an immovable barrier. This is also how he used those super cool wrist blades on the Full Gauntlets when he met All For One and made those braces around his arms and legs on I-Island. Regardless of whether his Quirk is directly emitted from him or harnessed by his costume, the same conditions (mass and applied energy) apply. This is why he passed out after freezing the dozens of criminals in New Mission and why he was worn down as much as he was when fighting All For One.

**Abilities: **Besides being a mad scientist/inventor, he was also a rather skilled fighter. He was in the boxing club in his middle school, which gave him the skills he needed to utilize Stasis the way he did, and it is also why he could always get back up after a hit. He was quick to analyze a situation and plan an appropriate course of action, and had enough creativity and improvisation skills to outsmart most others in problem-solving tests.


End file.
